Updated: Free Resources for Schools During COVID-19 Outbreak
(Updated September 14; originally published March 13) In response to the number of states, districts and schools that are shuttering schools to students over the next several weeks in response to fears about the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19), education technology companies have stepped forward to help educators reach students in virtual ways. In many cases, the companies are making their paid services free through the rest of the school year; in other cases, they're lifting limits to services and/or adding premium features to what's free. The following list will be updated regularly as announcements are made. (If you know of a company that should be included on this list, please send details to [email protected].)
Jump to:
Abre.io has made Abre Hub available free to schools permanently. The program provides a single place to post news and announcements and give quick access to software tools. Sign-up is intended for district representatives. https://abre.io/free/
The Academy of Active Learning Arts and Sciences and the Flipped Learning Global Initiative have published the "Rapid Transition to Online Learning," a roadmap for making the rapid shift to online learning during school closures. The resources include a checklist for administrators, another for IT managers, a transition plan and video tutorial for teachers and access to an international team of volunteers who have stepped forward to answer questions. The organization is continuing to seek volunteers for the program. http://aalasinternational.org/rtol/
The Academy of Art University is hosting a free series of online events, including guest experts in art and design speaking through Zoom, movie afternoons and nights, and virtual workshops on sketching and the use of various software programs. https://www.academyart.edu/admissions/upcoming-events/
Acer has put together a handy comparison table that provides an overview of remote learning tools. The chart specifically compares Google Meet, Microsoft Teams and Zoom, for remote learning; and Facebook and YouTube for video conferencing. The information examines whether or not screen sharing is allowed, the maximum number of attendees, the maximum length of meetings and other features. https://eu-acerforeducation.acer.com/uncategorized/remote-learning-a-comparison-among-top-collaboration-tools/
Achieve3000 is offering free access to resources for differentiated literacy instruction. Educators can access three different programs. Achieve3000 Literacy at Home offers access to non-fiction articles at three reading levels with topics covering science, social studies and current events. Premium licenses for Actively Learn, for grades 6 -12, provides thousands of texts, including contemporary and classic literature, with collaboration and discussion tools to facilitate interactive remote instruction for English language arts, science and social studies. For students without internet, the company is offering "Literacy Printable Packets," a set of text sets with 20 printable articles and questions. The company said those text packets add up to a month's worth of content differentiated for students who are at-, below- and above- grade-level in their reading abilities. Lessons can be downloaded and sent home by email or printed out. https://achieve3000.com/community-resources/remote-learning-2020/
ACT Academy is a free resource for personalized test practice for the ACT, Pre-ACT, Tessera and Aspire exams. The organization is also offering a feature for teachers to understand their students' mastery of math, English language arts and science concepts. https://academy.act.org/
ActivEd is offering free access to its "Walkabouts," platform with web-based lessons for students in grades pre-K-2 students that integrate movement with language arts, math and reading content and correlate to state learning standards. Students, teachers, and parents can access grade-level content. http://info.activedinc.com/covid
AdGuard is offering a free personal account to its ad- and tracking-blocker program for three months. The privacy protection software is available for Windows, MacOS, iOS and Android. To obtain a license key under this offer, register via this link and confirm the registration. Existing users may get an extra key by logging in through a special landing page. https://adguard.com/en/blog/stayhome.html
Addigy, a cloud-based Apple device management platform, has announced free 60-day access for schools. The program helps organizations deploy, manage and track new and existing Apple devices from a single console; automate IT tasks and implement IT policies related to deploying software, updating security settings, running scripts, managing groups of users and distributing and updating software; and troubleshoot problems for users remotely and in real-time. https://addigy.com/covid-19-addigy-60/?utm_content=covid-19-addigy-60
Adobe has developed a resource hub for education with free templates, links to free software (including Adobe Acrobat, Scan, and tools for Google Drive) and videos with instructions for how to use the programs. https://acrobatusers.com/edu-resource-hub/educators/
Adobe and Time Magazine have teamed up to provide a weekly art lesson online. The "Draw with Drew (and Rosie!)" sessions take place at 10 a.m. Pacific time on multiple websites. Drew Willis is the creative director of "Time for Kids" and a book illustrator; Rosie is his 10-year-old daughter; and both are "avid artists." Each episode includes a new drawing assignment, and participants vote on what they'd like the next assignment to be. https://time.com/5820518/draw-with-us/
Age of Learning is offering families at affected schools free at-home access to ABCmouse, a learning resource for ages 2 to 8; Adventure Academy, is open for students ages 8 to 13; and ReadingIQ, a digital library and literacy platform is available for children 12 and under. https://www.ageoflearning.com/
AI4ALL Open Learning produces a free, adaptable curriculum for high school teachers to infuse coverage of artificial intelligence into their lessons. The organization said its materials can be implemented in any subject and doesn't require a technical background to use. Students will learn what AI and machine learning are, the benefits and risks of AI and how they can be involved in forging its use in the world. https://ai-4-all.org/open-learning/
Always Ready for Learning is providing free customized coaching specifically to education leaders. Support provided by this nonprofit includes guidance on how to prepare for back-to-school. The process starts when the applicant fills out a questionnaire. https://www.alwaysreadyforlearning.org/
Amazon Future Engineer is providing free access to sponsored computer science courses in the United States, intended for independent learners in grades 6-12 and teachers who are remotely teaching this age group. Parents can also access the curriculum. The organization is also offering a virtual robotics program through partners CoderZ with a sequenced course that shows learners how to code; early learners use block-based coding; older learners use text-based coding. And Amazon Future Engineer is providing access to Georgia Tech's EarSketch, a free program that helps students learn to code through music. Grammy-award winning artists Ciara and Common have both provided studio-quality music "stems" that students can remix from home using code. Everything will be available for free at least until fall 2020. https://www.amazonfutureengineer.com/free-courses
The American Museum of Natural History is sharing a bunch of online content for teachers and families to use during virus days. That includes the "OLogy" science website with lessons on subjects from anthropology to zoology; online science curriculum collections; virtual visits to the museum through its YouTube channel; and massive open, online museum courses delivered through Coursera. https://www.amnh.org/explore
The American Writers Museum has brought its latest exhibit online. "My America: Immigrant and Refugee Writers Today" shares personal stories about topics such as identity, community, language, storytelling and what it means to be an American from contemporary authors. Educational materials are available on the exhibit as well. https://my-america.org/
Amplify has created a series of K-8 remote learning experiences in reading and science that are free and easy to use at home. https://freeresources.amplify.com/
Annenberg Learner and Two Bit Circus Foundation are offering free access to 150-plus STEAM projects for educators and families on Learner.org, the Annenberg Foundation's education division). According to the organizations, many of the projects use items people probably already have (Eggs! Legos!) and include resource guides to help the adults better communicate the learning concepts to the kids. (Go to filtering and choose "STEM/STEAM" in the subjects field. https://www.learner.org/search/
The Annenberg Space for Photography is offering educational resources to teachers, including 10 documentaries from previous photographic exhibitions that educators can use for free. The films run between 20 and 25 minutes and cover climate change, refugees, Cuban history, wildlife and hip-hop. Each film comes with discussion questions, and museum experts are volunteering to visit classrooms virtually for remote discussions. https://annenbergphotospace.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Documentary-Licensing-Form-Agreement_FINAL.pdf
Aperture Education has made a 33-page "Educator Guide to Optimistic Thinking" available as a form of professional development, along with other "take-home" PD activities. The company has also curated a collection of free parent resources to help their kids (and them) develop social and emotional skills. https://info.apertureed.com/archived-resources
Arizona State University has publicized access to three free educational resources it operates for K-12. The first two are "Ask an Anthropologist" and "Ask a Biologist." Activities include teacher toolkits with lesson ideas, podcasts with transcripts and videos showing the scientists in action, articles, puzzlers, experiments and the ability for students to ask experts questions. The third is "Virtual Field Trips," which provides 18 virtual trips with photos, explanations, short videos and maps. While the trips can be viewed on a computer, they really come to life through a virtual reality headset that allows for 360-degree viewing.
Arizona State University's EdPlus is working with Complexly's Crash Course on a series of entry-level course videos, starting with English composition. (Complexly and Crash Course are an initiative of the Green brothers, hosts of a popular vlog and best-selling fiction.) The new content in "Study Hall," won't offer credit or replace any degree programs, but rather will serve as a supplement for high school or college learners. Each subject will be the focus of about 15 videos running 15 minutes long, covering major points in the topic. Those are being hosted on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNrrxHpJhC8mNXjrAL3Ey1Q6iI35cymzl
ASSISTments is already free for use by middle school math teachers. The program allows them to assign homework or classwork and provide students with immediate feedback as they complete their assignments; teachers get a report showing individual student and class progress. There's a library of content that includes open textbooks, lessons and state test practice and skill-building problem sets. Now, the nonprofit is scheduling on-going sessions for helping teachers get ASSISTments set up for remote instruction. https://new.assistments.org/distance-learning
Avaya is offering free access to Avaya Spaces through Aug. 31, 2020, for virtual meetings, including chat, voice, video and content sharing. The "business" version of voice and video conferencing can accommodate up to 200 participants. The "power version" can handle 500 participants and adds recording and dial-in. https://news.avaya.com/us-cp-spaces-coronavirus-response-reg
AVID Open Access is providing free "grab-and-go" lesson plans and teaching resources, including standalone STEM activities for four different grade bands, as well as subject-specific and grade-level appropriate examples, to show teachers how to embed digital tools in lessons to meet their learning objectives. This combination of tools, videos and class activities work with whatever curriculum, devices and platforms schools and families use. The organization emphasized that teachers don't need prior knowledge of AVID strategies. https://avidopenaccess.org/
The B&O Railroad Museum may be closed, but the Baltimore institution is offering "B&O Junior Junction," featuring resources for young learners to help families supplement home learning. Organizers are adding new content every week. http://www.borail.org/JrJunction.aspx
Bakpax, which provides auto-grading, is offering free access to teachers. According to the company, the program uses artificial intelligence to do automatic grading of short response questions and math problems. When the answer is "manual," such as a graph, table, open response or diagram, the software shows a clip of the page to the teacher, who can then quickly grade the student response. To get an account set up, contact Bakpax at mailto:[email protected].
Belouga and the #SameHere Global Alliance are making recorded versions of events with leading mental health organizations from around the world available for viewing. Basic access is available free to teachers, students, schools and districts. https://belouga.org/mental-health-month
BirdBrain Technologies, which sells robot kits and components, has developed a "robotics at home" website with activities for students that allow them to program remote robots. https://www.birdbraintechnologies.com/roboticsathome/
Blackboard recently launched the File Transformer, a free resource enabling students to convert digital course content into alternative formats, to meet their unique learning needs and preferences. An outgrowth of the company's accessibility checker, Blackboard Ally, the new resource lets students personalize their learning experience and choose from several format types (PDF, DOC, DOCX, PPT, PPTX and HTML) to work better with mobile devices, assistive technologies and study tools. https://ally.ac/covid19/
Bloomz is opening the premium version of its communication service for free to all schools through Jun. 30, 2020. The software allows users to communicate updates in real-time to parents and students; and share lessons, student work and feedback. https://freetrial.bloomz.com/coronavirus-schools/
Boclips is making its video platform freely available to teachers until Jun. 30, 2020. That provides timely videos safe for K-12 that cover the curriculum, along with learning standards-aligned lesson guides. Content is updated monthly and comes from multiple sources, including PBS News Hour, LearnZillion, Crash Course and Bloomberg. The company has also developed a compilation of videos to help teachers learn how to incorporate videos into their lessons. https://www.boclips.com/teachers-free-trial
BombBomb is offering free accounts for its video messaging tool to teachers, professors, counselors and administrators in the United States and Canada. The program allows educators to communicate with students and families face-to-face (virtually, of course) and provide feedback with the help of a screen recording. Video training on the software is available on video. https://bombbomb.com/education/
Book Creator is offering a free 90-day upgrade to its premium service, which lets teachers allow their students to collaborate on creating books. The company is also providing daily webinars to help educators and parents work with the program. https://bookcreator.com/2020/03/support-for-schools-affected-by-coronavirus/
Boolean Girl has launched live, online events to help teach students "to code, build, invent and animate." The events, which are taking place every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 3 to 4 p.m. Eastern time, introduce new engineering and coding projects to increase interest and engagement around STEM. Each is being recorded so that students can watch the session afterwards if they miss the live presentation. https://booleangirl.org/full-stem-ahead/
Boston Children's Hospital has produced free professional development for educators on social-emotional learning and behavioral health in schools. Each course is self-paced and includes tools and strategies to be used in the classroom and overall school environment (because face-to-face school will be back in session at some point). https://www.childrenshospital.org/taponline
Brainchild is offering schools free subscriptions to its web-based Achiever, Mechanics, and GED/High School Equivalency programs. Achiever provides data-driven instruction for standards mastery in math, English language arts, science and social studies. Mechanics "reteaches" basic math and literacy skills that should have been learned in grades 1-8. The company said the software is especially popular with migrant and SPED programs. And GED/High School Equivalency provides GED, HiSet and TASC preparation. The trials last three months. Call (800) 811-2724 or fill out the form online to have a company representative activate the free subscription. https://www.brainchild.com/free-classroom/
BrainVentures, an initiative of the University of Michigan Center for Digital Curricula, is making daily learning adventures free. These are crafted by classroom teachers to give students choices of learning activities; they accommodate different learning preferences and engage the learner in constructing animations, videos, photo albums and stories while taking them on field trips and having them play games and run simulations. https://cdc.engin.umich.edu/daily-brain-venture/
BrightFish Learning has made its reading platform for grades 2-12 free until Jun. 15, 2020. The program provides scaffolded instruction in fluency, vocabulary and comprehension strategies while helping students build independent reading skills. Teachers can monitor progress remotely and track errors for online remediation sessions. Parents can access the software, as can educators. https://www.brightfishreading.com/membership/
BSI, a company that provides cybersecurity consulting, is providing a free port and service security review for K-12 schools and districts, to let them know about "critical, easily exploited issues" with their server set-ups. The offer is good for any state or county school district or recognized charter school with no more than 128 IP addresses. Interested IT organizations should contact BSI at [email protected].
Calvert Homeschool is providing three months of homeschool curriculum free of charge to families. Coverage is available for grades 3-12. In addition to videos and interactive activities, the company is also offering placement tests free of charge, to help parents and students benchmark growth. To sign up, use "calvert90" in the "promo code" field. https://www.calverthomeschool.com/freetrial/enterpromocode
Canva for Education is offering teachers forever-free access to its online design platform. The program, which is optimized for Chromebook, includes drag-and-drop tools to simplify visual communication. Students can create and co-create presentations, infographics, websites, reports, worksheets, posters, flyers and signage. The program includes access to 60,000 templates, two million images, 800,000 icons and illustrations and 700 fonts. Once teachers fill out the form, the company will verify the application. https://support.canva.com/account-basics/canva-for-education/apply-canva-for-education/
Carnegie Learning iCulture, a cultural immersion resource for Spanish, French and German language learners, is available free through the end of the school year. The program includes travel videos, day-in-the-life videos, current news articles and songs that are age and school appropriate for students in grades 6-12. https://discover.carnegielearning.com/iculture-for-at-home-language-learning.html
Carnegie Learning's LONG + LIVE + MATH has compiled a free blend of textbook and software resources to help with math classes. These include math lessons, skills practice and learning videos for students in grades 6-12. The company is also offering free access to its math coaching software, MATHia, until the end of the school year. https://www.carnegielearning.com/help-center/at-home-resources/at-home-resources-for-teachers/long-live-math-at-home/
Carnegie Mellon has reiterated availability of "Computer Science Academy," a free, online, interactive high school CS curriculum. CS1 is the year-long flagship course, with 120 hours of instruction and a "robust introduction" to coding with Python through graphics and animations. This course is available to educators with teacher accounts. CS0 is a "lite" version, which includes about 40 hours of instruction and is intended for middle school, out-of-school programs and summer camp settings. This course is available for both mentor and teacher accounts. https://academy.cs.cmu.edu/coronavirus2020
The Carnegie Science Center has set up an online educator resources page for students in K-12. The page includes links to lesson plans for simple science experiments that early learners can do, videos of behind-the-scene sessions at the Center's field station, do-it-yourself videos for maker science projects, an educator guide for engineering-themed lessons and a "STEM for Social Good" toolkit that can be used by middle and high schoolers who want to spark social change. The resources are being expanded weekly. https://carnegiesciencecenter.org/educators/online-educator-resources/
Carolina Biological Supply Company has curated a series of free science learning resources, grouped by grade bands (K-5, 6-8 and 9-12). In each group are grade-specific instructions, links to multimedia and cross-curricular activities that can provide "backyard" science projects using household materials. https://www.carolina.com/xm/service-updates?intid=hp_hero_serviceupdates
Casio has several resources available to help with math education. The company is providing free access to ClassPad.net, a web-based calculator for calculations, graphing, geometry and statistics. There's also software to emulate Casio's most popular scientific and graphing calculators as well as downloadable calculator activities that teachers can assign for elementary, middle and high schools. The company has also begun posting videos on its YouTube channel to help parents, students and teachers learn how to work through critical mathematical concepts using its calculators. https://www.casioeducation.com/remote-learning
CatchOn is offering a "COVID-19 service package" for 60 days for free. The software will let school systems track student usage on applications being run through district-owned devices, giving the IT organization visibility into what software is really being used and to what extent. https://www.catchon.com/covid-response/
CenterPoint is providing free access to diagnostic and interim assessments in English language arts/literacy and math in grades K-11, available online and in print; and curriculum-aligned interim assessments for EL Education and Illustrative Mathematics, also available online and in print. There's also a resource center with educator access to professional learning tools. http://www.previprc.org/
Cerego is providing free platform access to educators for the rest of the school year to improve remote education and help students learn effectively. Educators integrating Cerego into their curriculum use it to monitor absenteeism, test concept knowledge and understand student learning patterns remotely. To gain access, fill out the form. https://www.cerego.com/contact
The Character Tree is giving teachers a way to share character education videos and downloadable resources with parents to use at home. Free access will last through Jun. 30, 2020. This program provides videos for first and second graders, with discussions, examples from history and role modeling to teach "character development" and emphasize positive character traits, including kindness, curiosity and integrity. All lessons are standards-aligned and come with printable resources. Parents can also sign up for their own free accounts. https://go.charactertree.com/free_home_access_for_students
The Character Tree is providing free access to 32 videos and related materials to the end of the school year. That covers four hours of educational video content presenting positive character development. https://charactertree.com/sign-up/#join
CharacterStrong is offering free K-12 social-emotional learning resources that can be used for remote instruction, including a virtual toolkit, digital student assemblies, a virtual Whole Child Summit(taking place Apr. 13-24, 2020) and a "30 Days of Kindness Journal." Access to resources requires registration. https://characterstrong.com/
The Charles M. Schulz Museum has launched a series of short instructional videos, entitled "How to Draw Peanuts Characters," on the Snoopy YouTube channel. New videos are being posted twice weekly, covering the whole Peanuts gang, including a dancing Snoopy with Woodstock. The museum is also offering one-page downloadable PDF documents with step-by-step drawing guidance. https://schulzmuseum.org/museum-at-home/
Chemistry Shorts is a new series of brief films about the role that the chemical sciences play in contemporary life. Each film is accompanied by a lesson plan to incorporate it into the classroom instruction. The first two films are also available on YouTube. https://chemistryshorts.org/
Chicken Soup for the Soul, in partnership with American Humane, is promoting a line of free digital books for students, titled Humane Heroes, that share stories of animal rescue, rehabilitation and humane conservation undertaken at leading zoological institutions, as well as 18 literacy-based social-emotional learning lessons, targeting students in grades 4, 7 and 10. https://www.chickensoup.com/ah
The Children's Psychological Health Center has developed a 102-page guided "first-aid" workbook, "My Pandemic Story," for children and teenagers, to encourage mental health, creative expression, learning and coping. The book includes guidance for families and teachers. It's available in English and six other languages. http://www.childrenspsychologicalhealthcenter.org/resources/guided-activity-workbooks/
Circled In is being provided free to teachers, schools and districts. The program allows students to collect their work in digital portfolios for sharing with colleges and as a private network within the school. For access, email mailto:[email protected]. https://blog.cirkledin.com/blog/cirkled-in-offered-free-to-students-teachers-schools-and-school-districts
CirQlive, which connects web conferencing platforms to learning management systems, is giving 90 days of free usage of its integration tool as well as free consulting services for administrators on how to deploy or scale online learning. Schools need to provide the number of host licenses required and the company will set them up. https://www.cirqlive.com/
Cisco Webex is offering free accounts for education. Those meetings can have up to 100 participants, high-definition viewing, screen sharing and personal rooms. The company has also developed a collection of resources to help teachers and families use the online virtual conference program. https://www.webex.com/webexremoteedu.html
Classcraft is making its flagship program free to teachers and -- until Jul. 31, 2020 -- to schools and districts as well. The program helps educators develop and assess students while keeping them engaged. Teachers can use the software to set expectations and communicate those with students; give points for class participation; pull students together into teams for group work; and generate data on student work. The program also encourages parent participation by allowing them to give students points for motivating positive behaviors. https://www.classcraft.com/remote-distance-learning/
Classkick is offering the pro version of its course platform free to schools in need. The software allows teachers to upload content and audio, video and image elements tied to assignments. As students work on that material using their devices, the teacher can monitor their activities in real time. Students can request help privately and also use the program to seek help from their peers. Teachers give feedback, which students can respond to; auto-grading is also available. https://classkick.com/coronavirus
ClassTag has made its communication platform freely available to help districts and schools communicate with their families. The software sends messages through SMS, email, apps and the web and automatically translates them into one of 55 languages. The platform can also be used to post videos, assignments and other resources for students to access at home and allow users to run virtual lessons with a video conferencing tool, such as Zoom. ClassTag has launched a "rapid onboarding program" that provides a hands-on demo and phone and chat support to get schools launched in under 48 hours. https://home.classtag.com/schoolwide-demo/
codeSpark Academy has created a path for students to get free access codes from their K-5 teachers to the program, which teaches coding fundamentals and creativity with computer science. According to the company, kids as young as five can design and code their own video games and interactive stories. https://blog.codespark.com/story/free-resources-for-closed-schools
The Coding School is offering free online, one-on-one coding lessons and tech talks to children and teens who have been impacted by Covid-19. Software engineers from technology companies, including Google, Facebook, and Amazon, are volunteering their time for the nonprofit to help students learn how to code while schools are closed. Through spring and summer 2020 in grades 4-12 who have a parent who is a healthcare professional or has lost a job due to COVID-19 will be eligible to receive weekly, personalized coding lessons from a live instructor. Request a scholarship during registration or contact the nonprofit at [email protected] or call (323) 790-9992. The company is also seeking a limited number of students to participate in a free four-week online bootcampto learn game development as well. That will run from Jun. 8 to Jul. 3, 2020.
Comcast has taken a number of steps to help its customers through the move to online interactions. First, the company has increased speeds from 15 Mbps to 25 in "Internet Essentials," a program for low-income families to get internet access. The company has also eliminated the $9.95 price per month and made it free to new low-income customers for two months. It has also made its Xfinity WiFi hotspots free for everybody, including non-subscribers. It has also paused its data plans for two months, so that all customers can get unlimited data for no extra charge. https://corporate.comcast.com/covid-19
Committee for Children's Second Step has free social-emotional learning resources for educators, students ages 5 to 13 and their families. Those include podcasts to help families cope with physical isolation and "Mine Yeti," 15 mindfulness video sessions for families to work through together. https://www.secondstep.org/covid19support
Common Sense has created kits for teachers with weekly learning plans to help them ease their families into digital learning. The contents can be customized, and they're structured around a few themes: digital citizenship; goal-setting; scheduling; and the use of Common Sense for picking apps, websites and games that are appropriate for learning. Packets are available for kindergarten, first grade and second grade. https://www.commonsense.org/education/articles/free-distance-learning-plans-for-k-2-students-and-their-families
Conscious Discipline has compiled a collection of free online tools for educators and parents on managing stress during the pandemic. "COVID-19: Resources for Families and Educators" includes free membership to SEL lesson libraries with videos, games, and audio downloads, focused on coping strategies and restoring a sense of normalcy. The company has also made weekly videos available on social-emotional learning topics. https://consciousdiscipline.com/product/premium-digital-toolkit-1-year-membership/
Cornerstone, a workforce management company, has developed a series of "playlists" to help people--including teachers--adjust to working from home. Topics, including making the transition to online instruction and learning, stress management and working from home, are covered in "bite-sized" videos and downloadable guides. Registration is required. https://hr.cornerstoneondemand.com/cornerstonecares
Craft in America is sharing its library of free content, including education guides for K-12 teachers, a decade's worth of free online video content and playlists, virtual exhibitions and at-home activities. https://www.craftinamerica.org/blog/for-educators
CREST, an awards program created by the British Science Association, is making free educational resources available for students ages 5-18 who are stuck at home. Each activity includes detailed lesson plans and extended learning ideas. Some require specialized component kits. https://collectionslibrary.crestawards.org/
Crick Software is offering free access to its literacy software programs, Clicker and DocsPlus, for six weeks (possibly longer). Clicker is a word processor for elementary students. Clicker's writing frames, speech feedback, word prediction and other scaffolding tools enable struggling readers and writers to make gains in their literacy skills. DocsPlus is a word processor for middle school and high school students, designed to support them through the writing process. It's especially useful, the company said, for students with dyslexia, enabling them to gather their initial ideas, structure coherent pieces of writing and overcome spelling frustration. Fill out the form and the company will get in touch with installation instructions and a serial number. https://www.cricksoft.com/us/clicker/clicker-at-home
C-SPAN Classroom has removed the log-in and password requirements for all of the lesson plans and "bell ringers" on its website. Teachers and students can now access any resource on the site. With this new option, teachers can share direct links to those resources via email, social media or within their learning or classroom management systems. The company is also providing Zoom sessions on an individual basis to teachers who want to learn how to use the website and its resources most effectively. https://www.c-span.org/classroom/
Curriculum Associates has made printable at-home activity packs available for students that include self-directed and practice exercises. Reading and math packets are available for each grade from kindergarten through grade 8. Teacher guides have also been made available. https://www.curriculumassociates.com/supporting-students-away-from-school
CyberCivics is offering three free civics lessons for download. Those include the "five principles of citizenship," "how to be a good citizen online" and "what kind of citizen will you be?" The company said that the lessons are best suited for students ages 10 to 14. https://www.cybercivics.com/for-families
Dad's Worksheets has 9,393 math worksheets available for free download. Site advertising covers the costs. https://www.dadsworksheets.com/worksheets.html
DeeperDive Learning, which provides online professional development, has made two of its "FamilyU" courses available to parents, grandparents and others working with their students at home. The company said it was making "How to Read with Your Child" and "Building Reading Fluency at Home" available for free for two to the first 1,000 families who sign up. Those who register will receive a code and access instructions within one to two days via email.
Delphian School, a private school in Oregon, has begun offering free Zoom classes online for students ages 1 to 18. Teachers are providing 25 classes each week. Once they run in real-time, they're available for viewing on YouTube. The schedule is updated weekly. https://www.delphian.org/webinar-information
Denise Albright Studio has created free digital downloads for families, including a hand-washing checklist for kids and a "gratitude worksheet," to help them remember what's going right in their lives. https://denisealbright.com/collections/free-printables
DFRobot is offering free access to its STEM-based education resources for teachers and students. The interactive resources include lesson plans and step-by-step project tutorials covering the Internet of Things (IoT), robotics and artificial intelligence (AI), among other subjects. https://edu.dfrobot.com/
DH2i is making its DxOdyssey networking software available free through Aug. 31, 2020. The software is a Windows and Linux remote access program is an alternative to virtual private networks that provides "discreet and secure tunnels for application access" across the internet, corporate networks and cloud environments. Interestingly, company emphasized that its software download "is completely anonymous." There's no personal information collected, "to provide the assurance that no sales communications will result during or after the download and use of the software." DH2i is also making its support team available to help new users during regular business hours, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Pacific time, Monday through Friday. https://wfh.dh2i.com/
Digital Media Academy is providing free access to teachers through Sep. 1, 2020. The organization's STEAM Learning Lab includes 30 technology education courses designed for any educator to use for professional development, to deliver in a blended learning environment, or to open up to students, who can learn directly from the online learning platform. Sign up at https://schools.digitalmediaacademy.org/teachers/.
Digital Promise has compiled a set of online learning resources intended for educators that can be filtered by resource type, grade level, subject and cost ("free during COVID-19 school closures," "always free" and "limited free trial." For those concerned specifically about companies that have taken student privacy seriously, there's also a filter for whether or not the organization has committed to and signed the "Student Privacy Pledge." https://digitalpromise.org/online-learning/online-learning-resources/
Discovery Education has made its Discovery Education Experience digital service available to U.S. schools and districts that aren't already using the resources. The expansive platform provides access to 180,000 "assignable, editable" activities, videos, ready-to-use lessons and other resources" for K-12 math, science, social studies, English language arts and health. The company is also hosting a virtual conference on Mar. 26 and Mar. 27, 2020, to help educators apply Discover Ed resources in online education. https://www.discoveryeducation.com/virtual-learning/
DiscoverE has collected a series of articles with activities and videos for engaging students in engineering. That includes Friday conversations with engineers. https://discovere.org/at-home-engineering
Dreams for Schools has launched a coding-at-home initiative, with free online resources for elementary students and courses for middle school and high school students with slides and video lessons. The subjects: mobile app development and website development. The materials are being updated weekly. https://www.dreamsforschools.org/codingathome/
Dropbox has developed free "digital care packages," 20 different folders compiled of activities curated by creators, including artists, designers, foodies, musicians, writers and others. You can send them not just to others but to yourself too. https://www.dropbox.com/care-package
Du Chinese is offering free three-month access to its language learning content for students and educators. Features in the language program include more than a thousand Chinese lessons, translation capabilities, word lookup and audio of articles being read in "natural Chinese." https://www.duchinese.net/students
Earwig Academy has made its software for assessment, evidence capture and management, tracking and reporting free to schools for the next six months. The company said in a statement that it has created a modified version that can be "used intuitively and without the usual training required." Teachers and school leaders can apply at i[email protected].
Echo360, an education video platform is allowing individual high school teachers to access the software for free. Starting in April, they'll also be able to access free live video streaming capabilities. https://blog.echo360.com/echo360-instructor-edition
The Economist's educational foundation is sending out weekly resources via a new "Thinking through the news" bulletin, which contains stories from its archives and new tasks meant to engage students in critical thinking activities (and provide topics for interesting conversations at home). Both teachers and parents can sign up. https://economistfoundation.org/resources/
Edified is making its cloud-based professional development portal available free for educators through Jun. 30, 2020. The program provides a catalog of courses covering popular educational hardware and software, as well as quick assessments, certificates and badges for successful completion and administrative oversight to track whether everybody in the group has completed their training. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc9qbGMopMwiyM-lHlwsV_JduY1SJplUqXjOKwjnrKobUCwaw/viewform
The Edge Foundation has announced that its life coaches are available on a sliding scale — including free — to work with students virtually on non-academic challenges, including individuals who struggle with executive function challenges. https://edgefoundation.org/coronavirus/
edHelper.com, which produces printable worksheets and educational resources to teachers and homeschooling parents, said it would be publishing free daily workbooks for students who are out of school. The workbooks include math and writing exercises for elementary students. The company said the contents would be updated daily. https://www.edhelper.com/teacher-education/Daily-Free-Learning-Workbooks-for-Teachers-to-Share-with-Parents-while-Schools-are-Closed-Kids-will-actually-do-these.htm
EdisonLearning is offering free access to its educator training and professional development webinar series through Jun. 30, 2020. The webinars cover getting organized for remote learning, effective feedback in a virtual world, project-based learning through mastery projects, virtual professional learning communities, skills of successful online students and other relevant topics. https://edisonlearning.com/free-educator-resources/
Edmentum is providing free program access to its practice and assessment program, "Study Island," for two months or two free courses in "EdOptions Academy," its virtual school, to schools and districts affected by COVID-19. The company is also running a series of webinars to help teachers and families make the transition to online learning. https://e.edmentum.com/edmentumsupport2020/
Edmodo is continuing its free teacher, student and parent accounts, to facilitate communication within classes, groups and small groups. For teachers, the program can be used for classroom management, professional development, access to free teaching resources and gradebook tracking. Students can post to a class or group, access folders shared by teachers, organize tasks and set alerts with a planner and communicate directly with teachers. https://go.edmodo.com/distancelearning/
Edthena is running a webinar series to help instructional coaches provide newly-virtual teachers with support. The "Kitchen Table Coaching" runs for 30 minutes each Thursday online and covers strategies and best practices for facilitating virtual coaching. http://www.pltogether.org
Education advisory Education Elements is providing K-12 leaders webinars, office hours and online "coffee chats" on topics that include leadership, equity, trauma and virtual learning during school closures. https://www.edelements.com/covid19-school-districts
Educational Insights has compiled a set of free at-home worksheets for young learners. Those activities cover reading and language arts practice worksheets for grades K-2, spelling riddles for grades 4-6 and math for pre-k-2; as well as coloring, crafts and "brain benders" (word searches, riddles, connect-the-dots and mazes, among other games). https://www.educationalinsights.com/at-home-activities-for-kids
Education Lifeskills is providing free access to "Positive Thinking Pack," its course on social-emotional learning, which students can work on online. Subjects cover leadership, drug use and vaping prevention, positive thinking skills and media awareness, among others. https://www.educationlifeskills.com/athomelearning/
Education Modified has compiled two "bundles" of research-based information and resources to help families of special population students get through the remote learning experience. One covers how to help children do schoolwork at home; the other offers research-based activities for home-based learning. http://educationmodified-4381533.hs-sites.com/at-home-learning-resources
Eduflow is making its lightweight learning management system free. The program allows educators to set up online courses that facilitate discussions, peer review, feedback and other learning activities. For access go to https://www.eduflow.com and reach out on "chat support" (at the bottom of the page).
EduMotion is offering movement resources. Weekly SEL Journeys Learn@Home lessons, geared to K-5 students, explore SEL themes and guide students on a "global dance journey." The lessons are designed for students to experience on their own, or they can invite family members to learn and move along with them. Each participating school will get a unique login code, which can be shared with students and families. https://edumotion.com/learn-at-home/
Ellevation Distance Learning is providing free, research-based K-12 activities specifically adapted to support teachers of English learners in distance learning environments. The English/Spanish activities include how-to instructions, tips and tricks, graphic organizers, video examples and more. https://distance.ellevationeducation.com/home
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University is running a free massive open online course for students ages 8 to 17 on "Aviation is Your Future." The online program runs for nine weeks, from Mar 16 through Aug. 30, and requires a total of about six hours of time. The class is self-paced. The contents were produced by the university's Woman in Aviation International Chapter. Coverage includes a rundown on aviation terminology, aspects of flight such as lift and gravity, the major parts of the airplane, how a helicopter works and why space exploration is important. https://www.canvas.net/browse/erau/erau-coppa/courses/aviation-is-your-future
Emile is offering access to its game-based math and literacy programs until September. Featuring Emile and Aimee (and others), the software takes learners through the universe to help them learn how to solve math problems, spell better and get their grammar right. Just fill out the registration form. https://www.emile-education.com/schools-corona-virus/
Emotional ABCs is currently free for teachers, counselors and families. The "emotional skills" program is designed for children ages 4-11 and gives students practical tools for dealing with impulse control, frustration and acting out. Sign up for free at EmotionalABCs.com. The parent sign-up is here: https://www.emotionalabcs.com/signup/free/ . The teacher sign-up is here: https://www.emotionalabcs.com/signup/teacher/.
Encyclopaedia Britannica is offering all schools and students free access to its "LaunchPacks" science and social studies learning content. The sets are intended for students in K-12 and provide articles, images, videos and primary sources of information, presented in an "engaging interface," optimized for smart devices. The resources are translated into multiple languages. https://britannicalearn.com/covid-19-free-resources/
Nonprofit Envision Lead Grow won't be running its in-person entrepreneur summer camps for girls in low-income and underserved communities. So this year it's offering free virtual "afterschool" programs for girls in grades 4-6 to learn how to start their own businesses and become "girl bosses." The two-week program teaches participants what it takes to start and run a business based on their passions and how to make and manage money. They'll also compete in a pitch competition for $500 seed money to start their venture. The program blends video lessons, live webinars and small group sessions. https://envisionleadgrow.org/elg-2-0-virtual-immersion/.
Epic! is providing families with access to its collection of digital books for 30 days and making student access available for teachers for the duration. In both cases readers can choose from 40,000 books, videos and quizzes to keep their learn-at-home days filled. https://www.getepic.com/
Epic is providing elementary educators and librarians the ability to offer students remote access to its reading platform for free until Jun. 30, 2020, with no credit card required. Students may access the company's digital library, which has 35,000-plus books, read-to-me and audiobooks, videos and quizzes. Teachers and librarians can stay connected to their students by assigning books or collections and monitoring their progress. The company has also launched Epic Live!, a new Facebook Live series with experts helping students explore and learn at home in 20-minute segments. Recent and upcoming sessions cover painting, making a smoothie, running an experiment on refraction and putting on a play at home. https://www.getepic.com/learn/freeremotestudentaccess/
EtonLearning, a web application development company, has launched a free website to help young people, ages 10-18, learn about COVID-19. Coverage includes viruses, immunity, COVID-19, treatment, protection, staying healthy, "myth busters," and sources for reliable information. Registration is required. https://corona-elearning.etondigital.com/login
ETR, a nonprofit that promotes health equity, has developed two guides as part of its "Virtual Vitality" series, especially intended for teachers teaching sex education online. Both guides offer tips and strategies for adapting what might usually be in-person lessons to a virtual environment. https://www.etr.org/design-4-learning/
EVERFI is making its MarketWorks investment education program free to high schoolers, families and teachers. The online program helps students understand how the financial markets work. Citadel and Citadel Securities, which produce investment programs, worked with EVERFI to co-develop the curriculum. To get started, select the state and the student's school, register and navigate to the MarketWorks course. https://platform.everfi.net/remote_learning
Exploratorium, in San Francisco, has released a new online learning toolbox with free science activities and materials addressing public health topics around COVID-19 and more general science support activities and materials for virtual classrooms and at-home learning, covering the nature of viruses, the effect of soap on viruses, how we test for and fight against viruses, as well as the science of personal and social behaviors and interactions. The organization has also posted 285 science activities, called "science snacks," which use "cheap, readily available materials" and can be done at home. The organization has also published a collection of free, Spanish-language science activities, Bocadillos científicos. The collection includes general science activities designed for elementary-aged learners that use inexpensive, readily-available materials and support educators working in virtual classrooms and at-home learning. https://www.exploratorium.edu/learn
ExploreLearning is providing free 60-day trial runs of three programs: For math and science, there are 400 "gizmos," covering topics and concepts in math and science for grades 3-12. "Reflex" helps students master basic math for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. And Science4Us covers inquiry, physical science, life science and earth and space science with lessons for K-2 students. https://web.explorelearning.com/coronavirus-response/
EZTexting is providing free emergency text alert services to schools. To quality, people need to sign up using their EDU email address. They'll receive 100,000 free outgoing text messages for six months, access to a set of coronavirus message templates and one-on-one consulting. They also get a free keyword, with a short code to distribute to the community for quick sign-up of text messages. https://try.eztexting.com/free-text-alerts-new
Family Equality, a nonprofit supporting LGBTQ families, has developed a roster of virtual events for young learners, including movement, dance and music sessions and story hours. https://www.familyequality.org/virtual-events-for-younger-kids/
FIRST has collaborated with Star Wars: Force for Change, to create the "Building Star Wars Droids" activity. Students are charged with designing, pseudo-coding and/or building a robot that could assist with dispersal of COVID-19 aid in their community. The activity comes with a lesson plan for adults and design brief for students. https://www.firstinspires.org/community/home-learning
Fiveable is promoting access to its free social learning platform for high school students and teachers focused on Advanced Placement (AP) preparation. The program offers live streams, "trivia battles" and Q&A forums where students can connect directly with teachers in 15 different AP subjects in English, STEM, history and social sciences. https://fiveable.me/
Flipsnack is offering its classroom plan for free for a year. The program enables classrooms to collaborate on the creation of digital magazines. Besides text, those can include videos, audio, links and other interactive elements. https://www.flipsnack.com/classroom-plan-apply/
Follett has waived the cost for current Destiny customers through Jun. 30, 2020 for its "Classroom Ready Collections." These are pre-K-12 learning standards-aligned, educator-curated open educational resources with lesson plans, activities, videos and worksheets. The company reported that more than 2,300 free CRC licenses have been activated in less than a week. https://www.follettcommunity.com/s/article/follett-e-learning-resources
Follett has also worked with two partners to make their offers free to schools through Jun. 30, 2020. Weigl Publishers's Lightbox, is a pre-K-12 ebook platform that uses video, audio and text to explore content aligned with national and state standards. The learning includes slideshows, activities, quizzes, vocabulary and at-home printable worksheets, as well as Google Maps to provide further context. AV2 is making its World Languages available free over the same period. Intended for K-3, the program is a collection of 1,000 audio ebooks comprised of 100 high-interest titles in 10 languages. Both sets of programs can be accessed by educators, parents and students on all devices. Register on the Follett website for access to either program. https://cloud.k12edu.follett.com/lightbox-av2-offer
Follett and Baker & Taylor are working together to provide schools, libraries, teachers and families with free access through Jun. 30, 2020 to interactive resources that allow students to study and learn independently. Those include Lightbox, an interactive digital book platform for pre-K-12, and AV2 World Languages, a K-3 digital book program. https://www.follettcommunity.com/s/article/follett-e-learning-resources
Science equipment reseller Flinn Scientific has compiled numerous resources for science education, including video labs with teacher and student guides and 40 at-home activities for middle and high school science students. The company is also offering broadcasts of lab experiments conducted by its own scientific staff, with scientists on hand to answer questions. https://www.flinnsci.com/athomescience/at-home-lab-series/
Formative is donating access to all of Formative Team features for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year for teams of teachers who want to collaborate remotely to improve student learning. https://goformative.com/schools?plc=covid19
The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation has opened a virtual classroom with a series of STEAM-focused lessons that combine Wright's principles of organic architecture and solutions-based design with hands-on activities that encourage students in grades 1-6 to think critically and creatively. The series includes a new lesson and corresponding video each week, which are meant to be turnkey; parents can turn on the video and have the student watch, learn and complete the activity on his or her own. https://franklloydwright.org/VirtualClassroom/
Freckle has updated its free edition to allow teachers and parents to build unlimited assignments for students. The program focuses on K-9 English language arts, math, social studies and science content and provides adaptive functionality to allow students to practice standards-aligned material based on their evolving understanding of the concepts. https://www.freckle.com/
Freepik is making premium versions of its software free to educators until Jun. 30, 2020. That grants access to images, photos and editable icons that can be downloaded and used in presentations and for other purposes. The offer covers Freepik and Flaticon. To take advantage, register on the Freepik site then fill out this form. Once the company receives the registration information, it will activate the premium version of the account. https://forms.gle/n6bs8Ept2ZYZb6pC6
Fresh Films is offering a free series of video challenges that can be used as assignments for students in grades 5-12. Students create two-minute videos responding to a prompt. Challenges launch every two weeks and include film, documentary and journalism skill-building as well as self-reflective and social justice themes that fit social-emotional learning, social studies and science topics. Teachers can get access to project guides and video lessons. As a bonus, winning student projects will be awarded small monetary prizes, and winners can nominate a teacher to receive a $100 classroom grant. No previous filmmaking experience is required and projects can be created on smart phones, tablets and home computers. https://freshfilms.org/programs/videochallenges/
Gale is offering educators and librarians free access to digital content and resources to enhance instruction and learning. Resources include: interdisciplinary, curriculum-aligned resources to support online learning; live and on-demand training materials; e-books on virtual learning; and more. https://www.gale.com/covid19support.
GanttPRO is offering free accounts to its project management Gantt chart software for schools until Aug. 15, 2020. The software serves as a project planner for managing tasks and milestones for multiple projects, including instant updates for "dependent tasks"--those that depend on completion of previous activities. (Although the website mentions "discounts," the company is providing free access.) https://ganttpro.com/software-discounts-for-nonprofits/
Gemiini Systems is making its web-based learning programs available free for three months (longer, if the pandemic continues). Gemiini uses video modeling sessions for people with autism, Down syndrome, dyslexia, speech delay and stroke, to teach them speech, language, reading, social, and life skills. The company has also opened its certification program to professionals and has waived the certification fee. The company has tools for parents on how to use the Gemiini platform. https://gemiini.org/solutions/schools#/get-started
The Gemological Institute of America has developed resources for use by teachers. The "GemKids for Schools" educator guide includes four lessons of about an hour each, covering the study of gems in history, culture and nature, for ages nine and older. The website also offers lessons for the same ages in gem and jewelry careers, how diamonds are produced and what birthstones are. https://www.gia.edu/gemkids-resources-for-teachers
General Motors has launched a YouTube series on electric vehicles for STEM education. The series is intended for students ages 7-13 and was filmed in the homes of GM tech experts. Lessons explore various aspects of electric vehicles – from battery technology to design. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5UWrgmuniqIWKXCnIgtmMUvpLrBkCHHi
Generation Genius is offering access to its K-5 science resources for a month. According to the company, the videos and lessons are being produced in partnership with the National Science Teachers Association. The content is aligned to educational standards in all 50 states and are "easy for parents to use." Both teachers and parents can get access to their own accounts. https://www.generationgenius.com/
George's Dragon, better known as an online clothing and home décor retailer, is making a 300-page "child behavioral" guide available free. Parents will get support in dealing with child behavior, setting boundaries, motivating kids, adjusting expectations, improving family dynamics, gaining cooperation and other essentials for getting through the stress of having children at home more than full-time. Use "homehelp" as the promo code during download. https://georgesdragon.com/products/good-puppy-home-super-sidekick-printable-pdf
The Get It Guide math tutorials are always free. Intended as supplement to teacher instruction, the tutorials help students by asking them guiding questions and walking them step-by-step through math problems similar to the ones they're trying to solve. The program identifies which steps they understand and which ones they need extra help on. https://thegetitguide.com/math-topics/
Girls Who Code has begun publishing free weekly activities--some online, some offline--as virtual curricula. The nonprofit, which focuses on encouraging female students to embrace technology-laden learning, has already released an activity for creating "binary bracelets," a lesson on programming a digital story with Scratch and a tutorial on creating tutorials in HTML and CSS. https://girlswhocode.com/code-at-home/
Glose Education is offering free access for schools to its social reading and learning platform, where teachers and students in middle and high schools can read and learn together. The program has a collection of 4,000 free ebooks. https://glose.education/covid
GoGuardian is providing free, full-functional access to its whole suite of tools through the end of the school year. Those tools include at-home web filtering, classroom management, device management and student safety tools that will be useful during the transition to remote learning. The company said new users could deploy the software "in as little as 15 minutes." Also, current GoGuardian customers can receive free access to additional tools. The company noted that it was "happy" to expand license counts temporarily as needed. https://www.goguardian.com/blog/news/providing-learning-continuity-during-school-closures/
Golden Poppy is offering its app, Unicorn Blue, described as a "mobile outdoor augmented reality game," especially for girls, for free. Versions work on Android and iOS. https://store17195558.ecwid.com/Unicorn-Blue-Software-Download-iOS-or-Android-Share-App-on-5-Family-Devices-No-Ads-p139534265
Good Calculators is providing a variety of free online calculators, to do math and statistics, engineering and conversions. The website also offers specialized calculators for financial, date and time, logistics, sales, sports and health. https://goodcalculators.com/
Google is allowing G Suite for Education customers to use the Hangouts Meet premium functionality for free through September 30. People can host virtual meetings with up to 250 people and live streams with up to 100,000 viewers. Additionally, they'll be able to save recordings of their meetings to Google Drive. https://support.google.com/meet/answer/9760270?hl=en
Google is sharing free early access to "Read Along," an Android app for children five years and older that helps them learn to read by giving verbal and visual feedback as they read stories out loud. Read Along uses Google's speech recognition technology to help develop literacy skills. It was first launched in India (under the name, "Bolo"). Now it's available in 180 countries and in nine languages, including English, Spanish, Portuguese and Hindi. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.seekh
GooseChase is offers free access to software that enables educators to create and run digital scavenger hunt experiences. The program is being made available free until Sep. 1, 2020. https://www.goosechase.com/blog/educator-plus-upgrades-2020/
Gravic is offering free subscriptions through the end of the summer to Remark Test Grading, a hosted application for grading tests, quizzes and assessments, using an "electronic bubble sheet." For schools that choose to make the software available to teachers, the company is also offering a free connector to Canvas, Blackboard or D2L, as well as training. https://remarksoftware.com/remark-test-grading-cloud-available-to-all-teachers-for-free/
Great Minds has made free recorded learning resources available, including daily instructional videos for math (grades K-12), English language arts (grades k-8) and science (grades 3-5). The organization has said it would update its newly recorded lessons daily. https://gm.greatminds.org/en-us/knowledgeonthego
GSD Network is providing free access for teens to cross-cultural, "real-world" stories of young people from around the globe. The stories explore local history, culture, and teens creating social change in their communities, through videos, music clips, podcasts, images, short texts and other digital content. The company said the program is "best-suited" for students in grades 7-9, but it also works with older high schoolers too. To gain free access, using "VIRTUAL" in the registration process. https://gsdnetwork.net/teachers
The Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation has made 25 free two- to three-minute educational videos available for teachers to use in their online instruction, covering exotic sea wildlife and "the largest predators." There's also a free "Shark Talk" workbook available for download. The organization has begun marine-inspired art instruction sessions, which take place on Facebook Monday through Friday at 11 a.m. Eastern time. During those sessions Harvey answers questions from viewers. https://guyharvey.com/pages/ghof-education
Hallo is offering a free app to help students practice English. Hallo is a live-streaming community for English learners and teachers. Students can learn from native speakers through live videos 24/7 and practice speaking in seconds with people all around the world. https://hallo.tv/athomelearning/
Hand2mind has launched a home learning resource for K-5 students. The "Learning at Home" program includes videos on math and literacy content taught by teachers and activities to reinforce the lessons and downloadable worksheets. The company has committed to posting new content daily. https://www.hand2mindathome.com/
The Henry Ford Museum is currently making its "Innovate" curriculum free to educators and families; usually that's priced at $499 for the classroom. Geared primarily to middle school and high school students, the resources consist of a four-course, self-paced program of studies that connects STEAM and humanities through digital content and activities. The curriculum uses primary sources from the museum's Archive of American Innovation, a collection of 26 million artifacts that sheds light on the way people have innovated through history. There's also a free "Model I Primer" to help instructors understand how to use the lessons. https://www.thehenryford.org/education/innovate
Hargray, a telecommunications company that serves the southeastern United States, will offer free Internet service for 60 days to households in its service area with K-12 or college students who do not already have an internet subscription. https://www.hargray.com/freeinternet. The company will also offer discounted internet speed upgrades to existing customers to ensure they have the necessary bandwidth to accommodate higher Internet usage in their homes during this time. To take advantage of that, call the company at (877) 427-4729.
HERA Science is a beta version of an adaptive learning system for helping develop critical thinking skills through a combination of gamified digital activities, scientific phenomena, interactive simulations, real-time feedback and scaffolding tools. To learn more and gain access, contact mailto:[email protected] or mailto:[email protected]. https://actnext.org/research-and-projects/hera-science-adaptive-science-learning/
Heron Books, a K-12 curriculum company, has made 12 of its best-selling courses available free. The courses are designed for independent study and allow students to progress at their own pace. Subjects include English, math, science and more; offerings vary by age. https://www.heronbooks.com/freecourses
HiveIO is providing unlimited licenses for all education organizations for the rest of the school year to its enterprise virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) software. The software can run in a private or hybrid cloud environment. The company is also working with Aurora Cloud Technologies, which provides cloud infrastructure, to enable IT teams to deploy VDI with integrated remote access "to thousands of desktop users within hours." https://www.hiveio.com/free-vdi-license-application-form-for-education/
HOMER is offering educators at schools, tutoring centers and daycare programs three months of free access to its reading programs so children can continue their education. HOMER Reading, for kids ages two to eight, includes thousands of lessons on phonics, sight words and ABCs. HOMER Stories provides early learners with interactive stories from favorite books. Access is provided to the teacher or school to share, not the individual family. https://www.learnwithhomer.com/educator-offer/
Hooda Math has a bunch of free math games. The company has removed ads from many of its activities until Sep. 8, 2020. http://www.hoodamath.com/
Publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has launched a hub with a collection of learning resources. Those include free district licensing for Waggle (adaptive math and literacy instruction and practice for grades 3-8); Writable (writing skills practice for grades 3-12); and Amira Learning (early literacy assessment and practice for grades K-3). The company is also releasing daily activities and learning tasks, searchable by subject and grade and adaptable for at-home learning. The company has loosened its licensing so that teachers and librarians can host virtual reading sessions and use its curriculum through the summer. https://www.hmhco.com/learningsupport/at-home-learning-resources
IBM has launched Open P-TECH, to help young people and educators pick up the basics in topics including cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and cloud computing, as well as soft skills. Up until now, the P-TECH program has been provided as a model affiliated with schools. Now students who are 16 and older can register and participate on their own. https://www.ptech.org/open-p-tech/
icurio is offering free classroom subscriptions, providing access to more than 360,000 curated, vetted and maintained standards-aligned resources from open educational resource (OER) providers for grades K-12. The subscription is free until Jun. 30, 2020, to classrooms, teachers, districts, schools, regions and states. https://academy.act.org/school-closing-support/
iEARN-USA, which helps young people and educators learn how to participate in global collaboration, has been hosting a webinar series called "Wednesdays with the World" for teachers to use virtually with their classes. In each hour-long session, a project facilitator presents a mini-lesson, using activities from an iEARN project. Each lesson is then followed by a brief section with tips for online learning. All webinars are recorded and shared following the events. The organization is offering 60-day free trials, including the introductory Hello World Learning Circle, to join its community of global educators. https://us.iearn.org/news/iearn-usa-presents-wednesdays-with-the-world-webinar-series
iKeepSafe has made six digital books freely available to help elementary students learn safe online practices. The books are available as PDF files, narrated ebook videos and, in some cases, animated videos. Subjects cover sharing of embarrassing videos, online privacy, cyberbullying, balancing screen time with real life, dangerous downloads and making healthy media choices. https://ikeepsafe.org/faux-paw-the-techno-cat/
I Know It is offering free access to its online math practice lessons for students in grades K-5. The site features over 500 graphical math activities. Animated characters guide students through math lessons, and hints and graphical explanations help them along when they need it. This tool tracks progress and scores for teachers and parents. Parents and teachers can request unlimited access in a form online. https://www.iknowit.com/access.html
Identity Automation is offering temporary licenses and installation training for single sign-on and multi-factor authentication for federation licenses. These will expire on Sep. 30, 2020. Online real-time training and support are available. https://info.identityautomation.com/identity-automations-response-to-covid-19
Impero, a UK company, has launched Impero back:drop, always-free software designed to simplify the recording and management of student wellbeing for schools in the United Kingdom. The program helps teachers and other staff access a history for each student, including pastoral, child protection, behavioral concerns and mental health needs, as well as first aid incidents, medical requirements and a log of medicine administration. The system highlights patterns and connects external agencies for a single view, to enable early interventions and flag warning signs of serious concerns, including suspected home abuse or suicide risk. The company has created options within the software to support reporting specifically related to the current virus outbreak. The update enables schools to see whether a student has suspected symptoms, and to track the health of the student body as a whole. https://uk.backdrop.cloud/signup/new
Impero Software is making its pro edition free for the remainder of the school year to districts without remote monitoring software. The program combines tools for teacher control, real time monitoring and keyword detection and session tracking for student devices. Information about use of Impero Education Pro in a remote school environment is covered in a blog article. To get the software, email mailto:[email protected] or call (844) 346-7376.
Inclined2Learn is making its narrated guided reading passages and questions available free. The software guides students in grades K-3 through skill assessments, reading and listening to narrated passages and follow-up quizzes. Teachers can view student reports, track learning progress and assign additional skills and reading levels. https://www.inclined2learn.com/
InferCabulary is providing two months of free access to its online visual vocabulary tool. The program is designed to help learners infer deep meanings of nuanced words for themselves by analyzing and interpreting the common thread among carefully chosen images and provided captions. The approach is designed to teach the many contexts of new words rapidly. https://infercabulary.com/covid-free-two-months/
Inkshed is offering art, writing, music, and theater video lessons created by high schoolers for elementary school students. Each writing video includes games and prompts for students to follow and questions to spark discussion. Theater videos talk about emotions, body language and how to perform dramatic writing and include games for students to practice their acting skills. Each video is 10-20 minutes long, with new ones coming out regularly, according to the organization. https://www.inkshed.org/
inquirED has created "Together When Apart," a free inquiry-based lesson that builds over the course of a week and helps explore the question, "How can we stay together when we're apart?" Inquiries are targeted to early learners and intermediate learners. Teacher support includes a virtual lounge on Thursdays and professional learning webinars on Wednesdays. https://www.inquired.org/distancelearning
Insight ADVANCE, with help from Vonage, is offering its secure synchronous and asynchronous video platform to schools and districts for free through Jun. 30, 2020. The program helps with the professional development coaching process, by enabling recording and sharing of videos of teachers in practice for reflection and feedback and peer-to-peer interaction. https://www.insightadvance.com/free-offering
As always, Instructure is making its learning management system, Canvas, free for teachers. The account never expires and offers all course creation and importing, "mastery paths" to lead students through personalized learning, native use on mobile devices, a gradebook, quizzing and other features that teachers need to move their students to online learning. https://www.instructure.com/canvas/try-canvas#free-account
Intelligent Education is promoting the use of its always-free software to help educators create online courseware. Tools let instructors record lectures with slides, images and video clips and add 3D models, quizzes. The company also has 34 courses on in its catalog that various instructors have produced and made available. https://intelligenteducation.com/build-online-courses
IObit is making a utility free to help remote users speed up performance of their Windows devices. "Internet Boost" is a feature included in the company's Advanced SystemCare pro version. According to IObit, the software removes "junk files" to release more space; helps increase internet speed by "taking advantage of your maximum network bandwidth," removes privacy traces left by multiple programs; and dumps start-up processes that are slowing down start-up. https://www.iobit.com/en/advancedsystemcarefree.php
iRobot is making virtual and offline coding projects available for elementary and middle school students for home use, some of which require no particular technology. The company is also providing teachers with free access to a subscription program that comes with the company's Root coding robot. To unlock the premium content, download the Root Coding app and enter the code, "LEARN" on the home screen.
Jamf is allowing schools to use its Apple device management software free for four months, including functionality for teachers, students and parents. The company's products help with securing iOS devices and managing them, including creation of a closed environment in which students can do their school work, development whitelists of allowable apps and restrictions on use of specific device functionality. https://www.jamf.com/lp/remote-empowerment/
JASON Learning is offering free access to its online STEM curriculum. The nonprofit produces lessons for science, technology, engineering and math. Normally, it charges a per-student fee, which is being currently being waived. Interested schools and districts are asked to fill in a short online form to gain access. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfEtjx-qWIf2Zp5-LqoHKpCTX5IimQFcyTe3J12s2waJK7Oag/viewform
JoVE has made its educational video content available through Jun. 15, 2020. That includes free access to the three types of resources: JoVE Core, a video textbook that covers core concepts in biology and social psychology to improve learning comprehension; JoVE Science Education, a collection of easy-to-understand video demonstrations in eight STEM fields; and Lab Manual, curriculum for introductory biology lab courses. The company is also making its curriculum specialists available to help faculty map JoVE videos to their curriculum at no charge. https://info2.jove.com/requestaccess
Jumio is providing free identity verification services through Jumio Go, to educational organizations through September 2020. Jumio can help confirm that only enrolled students are participating in the online curriculum and helps proctor exams by authenticating students prior to any online test. https://go.jumio.com/goforgood-covid#form-title
JumpStart Academy is making JumpStart Academy Math free for users until Aug. 31, 2020. Domains include operations, measurements and data, fractions and geometry. Parents can play with children in team-based multiplayer games, students can design their avatars and children can "show their thinking," which can be accessed in the teacher dashboard to understand where gaps are surfacing. The content is available in Spanish. https://www.jumpstart.com/academy/math
JumpStart Academy and Edmodo are offering Edmodo's tutoring program AskMo for free. AskMo is a mobile app for Apple and Google devices to get live, personalized tutoring in math or science for students in grades 7-12. https://askmo.com/
Just Run has announced a fitness-at-home initiative to support physical activity in children. The program encourages parents to log miles run or walked by their child in "ways that observe local health mandates," submit their mileage, and then be able to view their child's accomplishments on the website. In addition to tracking mileage, parents are encouraged to celebrate milestone accomplishments by giving their kids "mileage award cards," available on the website. http://www.justrun.org/home-school-program
K12 Inc. is offering free online curriculum. That includes access to 17,000 ebooks through the company's digital reading platform, Big Universe. Almost 2,000 of those titles are available in Spanish. Digital texts are accessible online by computer, tablet and smartphone. https://www.k12.com/coronavirus
Kahoot! has begun offering free access to the "premium" version of its game-based learning software. https://kahoot.com/access-kahoot-premium-for-free/
Kapwing is giving away licenses for its professional edition to teachers. Kapwing is a collaborative online image and video editor with a cloud storage workspace. According to the company, it serves as an "excellent tool for teachers who are making video materials or lessons to send to students for remote learning, for students working together on a group project or for a classroom looking for a digital space to share multimedia projects with each other." The pro edition can accommodate videos up to 40 minutes long (versus 10 minutes in the free, basic version), lets users edit and store all content, make the content private and offers a one-gigabyte upload limit. Free teacher accounts are available until school is back in session. https://www.kapwing.com/resources/free-kapwing-pro-accounts-for-educators-affected-by-covid-19/
Kialo Edu is a free platform that helps educators encourage thoughtful classroom discussion and assist them in the teaching of critical thinking. The online service lets teachers start private discussions within their classes, provide students with feedback and ask them follow-up questions and create teams within the class. https://www.kialo-edu.com/
KidCitizen, a social studies learning tool for elementary students funded by the Library of Congress, is supplying a free, growing set of interactive episodes where K-5 students work with primary source photographs to explore Congress and civic engagement. https://www.kidcitizen.net/episodes-blog
Kiddom is offering math curriculum for grades 6-8 for free until August 2020. The materials include assessments and practice problems, multiple-choice auto-grading and resources for differentiated learning, English learners and students with disabilities. https://teach.kiddom.co/covid-support/
KinderLab Robotics has developed a "No KIBO? No Problem!" booklet to help teachers and parents teach building, engineering and design and coding without technology. STEAM activities are intended for students three- to seven-years-old and come from KinderLab standards-aligned curriculum. Each activity includes guidance on learning objectives and the resources needed to complete the project. http://resources.kinderlabrobotics.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/03/No-KIBO-No-Problem-v3.pdf
Kinedu, an app designed to help families and caregivers engage in personalized, science-backed activities with their young child, is offering its services free. The company, which has been funded and supported by MIT Solve, provides a proprietary developmental assessment, as well as a daily activity plan tailored to each child's development. https://www.kinedu.com/
Kinedu Classrooms, an instructional platform for teachers to use with children ages 0 to 4, is offering free global access through Jun. 30. Available in English, Spanish and, shortly, Portuguese, the program features curated lesson plans with 1,800 playtime activities that teachers can share with parents to do at home with their children. https://classrooms.kinedu.com/
Kiron has broadcast access to a set of free, interactive online lessons to help teachers globally learn how to better teach students online during school closings. The startup, funded and supported by MIT Solve, focuses primarily on refugees worldwide and underserved communities in the Middle East to provide access to high-quality education. However, the course applies to educators making the switch to online teaching anywhere, covering topics such as getting active participation online and creating a learning environment. https://teach.kiron.ngo/
Knowledge Unlimited is offering free access to "Read to Know," a weekly current events-based program presented in a newsmagazine format, for the rest of the school year. Each story is presented with background information that enhances learning across the curriculum. Students learn geography, history, civics, arts and culture and science in the context of the news stories. Read to Know can be used by individual students, in family study sessions and in online group settings. To log in, use "brain" for the username and "spring" for the password. https://www.knowledgeunlimited.com/newscurrents/index.php
Knowre has announced that it would make its math service free to all American teachers, schools and districts through the end of the school year. Knowre Math is an online core supplement for grades 1-12 that needs only a browser to view or an iPad app. Features include "walk me through" support and targeted assignments to help the student work independently. Teachers receive access to student progress via a dashboard. https://www.knowre.com/school_closure_support/
Kokomo24/7 has produced "COVID19Tracker," to allow schools to collect, track, share and manage information about cases of coronavirus in their area. https://www.covid19tracker.org/
Kuder is offer free access to Kuder Galaxy, an online career "awareness" program that introduces pre-K-5 students to various jobs; and Kuder Navigator for grades 6-12, which serves as an online career and education planning system. The company is also making professional development resources available free. https://www.kuder.com/success-at-home/
KwikSurveys is offering its "pro" plan to teachers and schools to help them engage with and track the progress of students at home. The program enables educators to create online quizzes with automatic scoring, response tracking, segmentation and collaboration features. The offer extends to three months of usage. Company contact is required. https://kwiksurveys.com/coronavirus-free-distance-learning-tools
LabsLand is providing online access to actual laboratories (not simulations) through school closures. The program is typically used to teach engineering, electronics, physics and other lab courses. The labs are located in 24 universities around the world, and students access them through a browser, to experiment and manipulate the labs remotely. To gain access, contact the company at mailto:[email protected] with "COVID-19" in the subject line or visit the covid-19 page. https://labsland.com/blog/en/2020/03/12/schools-and-universities-closure-support/
Labster, which provides virtual laboratory simulations for high schoolers, has made its software free. Some 100 lab experiments cover biology, chemistry, physics, engineering and general sciences, which students can perform "at their own pace." https://www.labster.com/covid-19/high-school/
LabXchange from Harvard University is an always- free resource that provides digital content compiled from multiple sources in the sciences, including lab simulations, which educators can mix into their own learning narratives and share with students. Among the functionality provided are social networking, class groupings, discussion forums and "mentorship" (to bring learners together with educators and researchers around the world). https://www.labxchange.org/
LanSchool is offering free licenses to its software, LanSchool Air, good through Jul. 1, 2020. The "classroom orchestration software" provides screen monitoring for teachers to help students and keep them on task; messaging; a "raise hands" function to address student questions; and integration with Google Classroom and other software in use. https://lanschool.com/lp/complimentary_lsa_covid19/
The Lead4Change Student Leadership Program allows students in grades 6-12 to work virtually to lead, create and implement a project to meet a community need. Lessons are available to educators in PDF or Google Docs form. https://www.lead4change.org/how-to-participate/join/
The League of Young Inventors, a Brooklyn-based hands-on STEAM program, is building a series of free online projects and lessons to help students make, build and learn science at home. Each lesson includes a video to guide students through the project, teaching science concepts along the way; a list of household and basic crafting items for families to find and use; and an online guide with optional extension activities. http://yileague.org/online/
Learning Ally is providing free access to Learning Ally, a collection of 80,000 "human-read" audio textbooks, to help students with reading deficits. The offer runs through Aug. 1, 2020. https://www.distancelearningally.org/educators-resources
LearnToMod is offering free teacher accounts for its Minecraft "modding" software. Teacher accounts give educators the ability to spin up Minecraft servers for students to explore and to create and organize free student accounts into classes. For students without accounts, there is an in-browser Minecraft simulator. However, for the full experience, students need a copy of the game. https://www.learntomod.com/educators/
The Learning Accelerator and GetSetUp are working together to provide free educator-to-educator training on tools teachers need to plan, connect and provide instruction and support for students. Educators can sign up to join free group classes taught by other teachers on how to use tools like Zoom, Google Hangout Meets and YouTube for streaming classes; various screencasting tools; and online teaching platforms. Sessions last one hour and are available on multiple days throughout the week. https://www.getsetup.io/remotelearning
Learning.com is offering online open-source lesson plans for educators, students and parents, covering digital literacy and computational topics. The company is also providing free access to the EasyCode Foundations (CodeMonkey) curriculum and the EasyCode Pillars Python Suite (Codesters) curriculum. Recently, Learning.com developed a "digital skills playlist," a free resource for K-8 students with grade-specific lessons that students and families can access from home (though registration is required). https://info.learning.com/virtual-learning-resources
Learning Planet is giving six months of free access to Learning Explorer, an online curriculum management program that includes content as well. The software lets teachers create learning resource collections for their classes and share them with parents and students. Schools and districts that are interested must fill out an online form or call the company at (888) 909-9035.
Legends of Learning has opened access to its 2,000 standards-aligned math and science games for free for the rest of the school year to schools and parents. The company is also providing its premium-level custom assessments, scheduling features, data and analytics and training and support for all schools affected by closures. The company has also launched 10 weeks' worth of game-based activities and offline STEM competitions that include prizes. If a student completes all 10 weekly assignments in a grade level by Aug. 31, 2020, they will receive Legends of Learning Awakening by Sep. 15. https://www.legendsoflearning.com/summer/
Learning Resources is posting daily activities for young learners on its website. A recent post covered "nine letter writing prompts for kids"; another offered a STEM challenge: "What makes 10?" http://blog.learningresources.com/category/learning-at-home/
LEGO is sharing design simple challenges. The company has assembled LEGO designers, creatives and play experts to come up with new ways to help families "stay creative, curious and connected" while at home. Daily play challenges, new play ideas and live build-a-longs are being shared in photos and videos on social media using the hashtag #LetsBuildTogether and at www.lego.com/letsbuildtogether.
Lenovo is offering free access to LanSchool Air licenses as an online learning solution through Jul. 1, 2020. The program supports distance teaching through screen monitoring, which mimics the classroom environment, helping teachers provide assistance and encouragement to keep students on task. Messaging enables teachers and students to stay connected and collaborate on assignments. "Raise Hand" lets teachers address student questions in remote settings. The program integrates with Google Classroom and Clever. https://lanschool.com/lp/complimentary_lsa_covid19/
LightSail Education is offering schools, districts and parents free access to its K-12 literacy platform, including 6,000 fiction and nonfiction books, until Jun. 30, 2020. The collection includes literature "classics" and short-form books in English and Spanish. https://lightsailed.com/coronavirus-complimentary-literacy-platform-access/
Lingoda, an online language school, is offering free access to 2,000 different language learning materials in English, Spanish, French and German, as well as assistance in setting up online classes, online "masterclass" Q&A sessions and guides on running a successful online class experience. After registration, a staff member will get in touch to set up access. https://blog.lingoda.com/en/stay-home-and-keep-learning-with-lingoda
Literal is offering free access to its "classic" subscription books. The program offers multiple modes of reading engagement to "entice, motivate and delight reluctant readers." Teachers can track student progress remotely. Use the promotion code "FreeClassics" during registration. https://literalapp.com/literal-for-education/#CovidClassics
Local Civics is running an on-going series of Zoom workshops to help young people in middle school and high school learn how to take leadership roles in all kinds of professions. Registration is limited. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdk2sB5_aQ0Uybh0SIOeeTSa4fQz0XkzWSBOhOvsnhHVSjkhQ/viewform
Loom is making its quick-response video software free for educators forevermore. The program captures a person's screen, voice and face and allows for editing, "instant sharing" and controlled viewing. https://support.loom.com/hc/en-us/articles/360006579637-Loom-Pro-Free-for-Students-and-Teachers
LoonyLearn is making a bunch of free K-5 math and spelling games available to students. Paid family, teacher and school subscriptions are needed to get access to dashboards that can help the adults assign topics to their students and track progress. To get to the games, choose a selection on the giant wheel on the home page. https://www.loonylearn.com/
Lumos Learning has made printable math and English language arts state assessment worksheets available free for download. https://www.lumoslearning.com/llwp/resources/free-math-english-worksheets.html
MackinVIA, which resells learning products into the education market, has compiled a collection of digital content from its publishers free until Sep. 30, 2020. Ebook collections are available for elementary school, middle school and high school readers. Other resources include history and cultural site tours and podcasts. Set-up of a company account is needed for educators who don't already have one. https://www.mackin.com/hq/distance-learning-essentials/
Macmillan Learning is offering free access to LaunchPad, Sapling, iClicker and FlipIt to educators and students through the remainder of the spring 2020 semester as well as the winter 2020 quarter for those schools not already using these digital products. LaunchPad provides an online space where students can read, study, practice and complete homework on a given subject. Sapling gives students "wrong answer-specific feedback" on their problems so they learn from correct and incorrect answers. iClicker is a response system that works in an online format. FlipItPhysics is a class preparation system that uses active learning. The company is also hosting a series of webinars to help educators make the transition to online teaching. https://www.macmillanlearning.com/college/us/content/covid19
Madeleine Editions is making its collection of multilingual stories free until Apr. 4, 2020. The company said that its mission was to help children ages three to eight "cultivate an ear for languages and a taste for the creative arts." Once downloaded via Apple Books, the collection can be kept permanently. Titles include, "Vampire Pool Party," "Wiggly Tooth" and "The Taste of a Strawberry," among others. https://madeleineeditions.com/stories/
Managed Methods, a cybersecurity platform that monitors G Suite, Office 365 and email applications for cybersecurity threats and student safety risks, is offering K-12 school districts free access to its platform for 30 days, with training and support. The company has also published a checklist to help school IT teams vet their cybersecurity and safety protections during the move to remote learning. https://get.managedmethods.com/k12-cybersecurity-free-access
Mango is making its Classroom online language-learning program freely available to schools through the end of the current school year. The program offers lessons for 70 languages in a digital format that can be accessed online and offline, via desktop and mobile app. The software includes on-task monitoring and assessment results for teachers and reading, listening and speaking activities for students. https://mangolanguages.com/info/covid19-response.cfm
Manticore Games has launched "Code Academy," a destination for free online classes for game creation and design. Courses include tutorials, videos and hands-on examples, as well as weekly livestreams where instructors answer questions directly. https://www.manticoregames.com/news/introducing-core-academy-and-core-game-dev-bootcamp
MarcoPolo Learning is offering 30-day free trials to MarcoPolo World School. The program provides a STEAM-based curriculum where children ages 3-7 have access to 500 video lessons and 3,000 interactive learning activities. https://www.marcopololearning.com/special-offer/MPL1M
Math Nation is offering free digital access to its resources through August 2020. This learning program uses videos, hands-on activities and lesson guides to cover its subjects. Teachers can assign explanatory videos to students based on their learning needs; the study experts in the videos cover the same material at different speeds and with different styles. A practice test tool at the end of each section of content quizzes students and provides instant results and personalized feedback to identify gaps in understanding. Students can also get feedback from teachers, tutors and peers on the "Student Walls." A "Teacher Wall" helps educators from within a given state engage with each other. https://mathnation.com/LearnMore/
Mathchops helps students build core skills for standardized tests through adaptive games. Teachers can view high-level stats for their students, see individual questions and create and assign quizzes. All questions have explanations and are graded automatically. Versions for SAT, ACT, ISEE, and grades 4-11 are being made available free during the COVID-19 school closures. https://www.mathchops.com/signup/free-trial
MathNook has added new games and puzzles for play by students learning at home. The resources can be filtered by grade level, covering K-12, and include worksheets, mobile apps, tutorials and teaching tools. No registration is required for access to the games. https://www.mathnook.com/
Maths Chase, already free, provides online learning games to help students practice their math skills. Games include times tables and problems for addition, subtraction, division, odd and even, sequences, prime numbers and place values. https://www.mathschase.com/
MathTutor Educational Software is making its math tutorial software for grades 6-12 available to schools at no cost through Jun. 30, 2020. The series is available in online and desktop versions. The programs feature interactive, self-paced tutorials that help students build proficiency in math concepts and problem solving. https://www.mathtutor.com/coronavirus.html
Matific is making its math software free for 60 days. The program's Common Core learning standards-aligned activities, worksheets and word problems combine gamified activities with real-world problems, to help students see the relevance of what they're learning. Teachers can assign activities, assess results with the real-time reporting system and email progress reports home to parents. Access is provided through a school account. https://www.matific.com/us/en-us/home/onboarding/
Mawi Learning and ACT Tessera are providing free social-emotional learning resources from ACT's SEL Curricula and Assessment, including SEL home connections worksheets and skill building activities. Resources include hands-on-tools for stress management, goal setting and relationship building. https://www.mawilearning.com/covid-19-help-resources/
Mazaam introduces young children to classical music. The app for iOS and Android is currently free. https://mazaam.com/en/app-recommended-public-institutions-canada-united-states/
McGraw-Hill has developed an out-of-school learning website to help K-12 teachers make the transition to remote instruction, with product walkthroughs of its many math products and other free resources and videos over the coming days. https://www.mheducation.com/prek-12/explore/remote-learning.html
McGraw-Hill announced free access to its "5 Steps to a 5" Advanced Placement test preparation guides in 14 AP subjects. Students can create a personalized study plan based on their test dates and set daily goals to stay on track, through the use of integrated lessons, practice questions, exams, flashcards and games. The online courses will be available for 90 days for students who register for access prior to Jun. 30, 2020. https://learn.mheducation.com/ap-teacher-resources.html
MEL Science has introduced free online science lessons with "practical experiments" that students can carry out at home, such as creating a DIY hand sanitizer, showing how to cool a drink with salt and how to make a simple barometer. The company has also launched MEL Academy, a set of webinars delivered by science teachers giving online science lessons and hands-on demonstrations of experiments for students ages 5 to 16. https://melscience.com/US-en/articles/
Menlo Security is offering no-cost licenses to organizations to help their employees maintain security during work-from-home days. The software covers three security concerns: isolation of email links and attachments to protect against phishing attacks or malicious attachments; direct connection to the internet without having to use the virtual private network infrastructure; and a free assessment of the current infrastructure and development of a deployment plan to quickly deploy services. https://info.menlosecurity.com/Request-Your-Free-Proxy-and-Phishing-Protection-Licenses.html
MetaCoders is offering daily coding lessons on YouTube. Curriculum covers computer science concepts, how to think like a programmer and how to code more efficiently. Lessons run between five and 15 minutes. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJwcNVM9uG03zUbYrUYeW0g
MeTEOR Education, an education consultancy, is making its MeTEOR Connect library of professional development videos available free. Topics cover subjects, such as math and English language arts, as well as instructional best practices. https://lms.meteorconnect.com/
Microsoft is reminding schools and districts that it offers a free set of productivity applications — including Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote — for education, for those schools that haven't adopted a software suite yet. Office 365 A1 also comes with services, including OneDrive (for storage and file transfer), Teams (for web communications), Forms (for quizzes) and other utilities useful for collaboration. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/academic/compare-office-365-education-plans?activetab=tab%3aprimaryr1
MIND Research Institute is offering ST Math to parents, schools and districts for grades K-8, free through Jun. 30, 2020. The company has also compiled resources to help parents and teachers get their students up and running on the lessons. https://www.stmath.com/coronavirus
Mindantix said it intends to release weekly sets of brainteasers that teachers and parents can use for warm-ups with their students or that can be worked on independently by students. One example is coming up with a mnemonic for remembering the order of the planets (which includes Pluto!); another suggests creating a new gadget using sunglasses and chopsticks. https://www.mindantix.com/index.php/site/page?view=covid
mindSpark Learning has developed a set of professional learning sessions for educators, including school leaders, focused on remote teaching, supporting and engaging staff remotely and maintaining social and emotional health during physical distancing. The nonprofit is also hosting on-going "coffee chats," Zoom sessions for people to share their specific needs and get feedback from other participants. The nonprofit is working with IBM on hosting a series of free professional development sessions for educators on artificial intelligence, to help them learn the basics and infuse AI concepts into instruction. mindSpark is also working with Project ECHO, at the University of Denver, to deliver a continuing education series on social-emotional learning for teachers, administrators and others who work with children. https://www.mymindsparklearning.org/online-toolkit
Mobile Guardian is offering its classroom and filtering products free to schools. Remote management can be handled online for Android, iOS and ChromeOS devices. That includes setting device, content and app permissions based on profile, time and location. A district dashboard allows for creating and managing multiple school profiles. A linked parent dashboard allows families to manage and monitor their students' mobile device usage outside of school hours. https://www.mobileguardian.com/mobile-guardian-pro-classroom-to-cloud-remote/
MobileMind, a certified Google for Education professional development partner, is offering free technical and learning support for G-suite. The offer includes live support sessions, consultations and curated distance learning resources for educators using Classroom, Chat, Docs, Drive, Slides and Calendar. https://mobilemind.io/distance/
MobyMax is making its catalog of K-8 programs free for teachers, schools and districts through the end of the school year. These include educational curriculum for students in the core subjects; software to allow teachers to assign lessons based on student placement tests; monitor progress and adjust the order of upcoming lesson sequences; and a tool for setting up teams and adding game functions to practice assignments. https://teachers.mobymax.com/moby-remote-learning
Move This World has developed a collection of free social-emotional learning activities that families can use at home, including ideas for celebrating and bringing a sense of closure to the school year, keeping kids safe online, and doing an "SEL scavenger hunt." https://www.movethisworld.com/category/supporting-mental-health-covid-19/
The Myers-Briggs Company has released an open-access version of VitaNavis, a mobile tool to help students envision possible careers for themselves. The "Student Success package provides schools with access to Student Exploration and "SuperStrong," assessments to help users evaluate their strengths, interests and values; and a virtual advising guide, to help counselors work with students virtually to navigate their academic and career pathways based on their assessment results. Registration is required; the company said it would get in touch within 72 hours to set up an account. https://get.vitanavis.com/k12guide
The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, which is celebrating its hundredth birthday has announced 100 days of professional learning for educators -- for free. The organization is also offering free NCTM membership as well. Each webinar will run on Zoom and be held at 7 p.m. eastern time, leading up to the opening of the NCTM 2020 Annual Meeting in St. Louis, which begins on Oct. 21. The sessions, which are limited to 1,000 participants, feature a variety of speakers and topics geared to all grade levels and interests. The webinars will be recorded and made available the following day. https://www.nctm.org/100-Days-of-Professional-Learning/
National Geographic Explorer Classroom is hosting experts online in live events each day at 2 p.m. Eastern time to allow students and adults to ask questions face-to-face. https://www.nationalgeographic.org/education/student-experiences/explorer-classroom/
National Geographic Society has released a number of free resources and visuals, including daily Explorer Classrooms live broadcasts (at 2 p.m. Eastern time), to enable young people to hear National Geographic Explorers talk about their expeditions; educator-curated collections of learning activities; and a resource library with lessons, videos and articles.
The National PTA has compiled resources for families, teachers and parent-teacher association leaders on how to survive the home hostage situation. For parents that includes social and emotional support, advice on learning at home and healthy habits suggestions. Educators will find links to tips on teaching from home and supporting their students, tools and how to do "selfcare." PTA folks will find guidance on how to meet the needs of school families and sustain a healthy PTA organization during school closures. https://www.pta.org/home/family-resources/coronavirus-information
The National Constitution Center is launching a free eight-week series of daily live interactive courses on the Constitution for middle school and high school students. They'll be led by NCC President and CEO, Jeffrey Rosen, a law professor and constitutional expert, along with other NCC constitutional scholars and educators. The sessions, delivered via Zoom, will allow students to participate in daily lectures and conversations about the basic principles of the U.S. Constitution. Teachers are also able to sign their students up for virtual "Classroom Exchanges," expanded to go beyond classroom-to-classroom conversations to meet students in remote environments. Teachers who would like to sign up their classes for private remote teaching sessions with scholars can sign up here.
The National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame has closed, like almost every cultural center in the country. But it has made a bunch of resources available to keep young wranglers occupied at home. Those include puzzlers, word problems, math activities ("how to measure a horse") and a cowkid-oriented story time on its YouTube channel. http://www.cowgirl.net/education/resources/
National Geographic Learning has published free COVID-19 lesson plans and resources for teachers. Included are lessons for K-8 students on the virus, what they can do to protect themselves, and how they can make a difference. Middle school and high school science, social studies and reading lessons go further by providing context to the disease and exploring its impact. The units include a focus on the science of COVID-19 and coronaviruses, a look at how vaccines are developed and comparisons to the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. The program provides language supports to help English language learners better understand the virus and communicate about it in English. https://exploreinside.ngl.cengage.com/index.php/interdisciplinary-k12-resources/
National University, a mostly online institution, is offering free tuition for California college students who have had their learning disrupted because of the virus. Their courses are offered monthly, and students can sign up for up to three courses over the next three months. The university said it has nearly 2,000 online courses, most of which are asynchronous and available to students anywhere and anytime, and are transferable for credit at colleges across the state. https://www.nu.edu/coronavirusresponse/
The Natural History Museum of Utah is now offering an interactive version of its free online education program, "Research Quest," which allows students to have live sessions with professional educators from the museum while schools are closed. The museum is offering this every school day at 9:30 a.m. Mountain time. Archived versions of each class are also available anytime. A teacher support page explains how to align the materials to their learning standards. https://nhmu.utah.edu/rq-live
Navigate360 is opening up access to its behavioral threat assessment technology free through Aug. 1, 2020. According to the company, by using this program, schools can keep their cases organized and on track when working remotely, while also keeping sensitive student information secure. https://navigate360.com/behavioral-threat-assessment/trial/
NEO is providing sign-up for the free edition of its learning management system, which works for schools with up to 400 students. That version includes class templates, content authoring and accessibility features as well as functionality for discussion forums, doing web conferencing, adding gamification and quizzes, taking attendance, tracking grades, building badges, doing bulk import and export of accounts, syncing class content and more. The program integrates with G Suite, Google Drive and OneDrive and offers mobile apps for iOS, Windows and Android. For the free edition, click the "Free plan" button. https://www.neolms.com/
Nepris, which delivers online talks with industry professionals on a wide array of subjects, is making its virtual industry chats available to everyone, including 9,000 already archived. The talks are available online: https://www.nepris.com/sessions/upcoming.
Netop is offering free trials of two programs. Netop Remote Control on Demand helps the district team provide direct assistance to teachers and other education staff via screensharing and mouse, touchscreen and keyboard control. Vision for Chromebooks lets the teacher monitor students while giving online instruction or during scheduled work times, limit them to specific websites, share the screen with students so they can present their work and provide remote troubleshooting. The trials will be valid through Jun. 30, 2020.
NetSupport Manager is making its remote support tools free for three months for schools, covering up to 200 devices. The software enables IT support personnel to provide secure remote support to users running Microsoft Windows, Apple iOS and Google Chrome or Android. https://www.netsupportmanager.com/usa-nsm-offer/
NeuShield is offering six months of its ransomware software, NeuShield Data Sentinel, to schools. The software can be deployed by IT organizations remotely. Contact the company to take advantage. https://www.neushield.com/contact/
The New-York Historical Society has developed "Tech Scholars ONLINE," a free online program for high school girls to learn coding. They interact with live instructors and a community of other girls, do pair programming and collaboration, build digital projects and get mentoring from female leaders in tech. Coverage includes learning to program HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Donations are accepted but not required. https://www.nyhistory.org/education/teen-programs/scholars-program
The New York Times Company and Verizon have opened free access to NYTimes.com to all high schoolers and their teachers, to help keep students "educated, informed and connected." From Apr. 6 to Jul. 6, 2020, students and teachers will be able to access Times journalism online. To sign up, teachers or administrators need a consolidated list of student emails. https://www.nytimes.com/initiative/highschoolaccess
Newsela is providing free access to its collections, including those for English language arts, social studies, science and social-emotional learning, through the 2019-2020 school year. Newsela is an instructional content platform that combines leveled content with integrated formative assessments, culled from sources that include the National Geographic, NASA, Biography.com, Encyclopedia Britannica, the Washington Post and many others. Access can be by individual teacher for the class or district administrator for the whole district. https://newsela.com/about/distance-learning/
News-O-Matic is making access to its daily newspaper for students available free through Jun. 30, 2020. Each day the company publishes five original articles, written at a variety of reading levels for grades K-8. Every story is translated by native speakers from English into Spanish, French and Arabic. The texts--at all levels and languages--are read out loud. In addition, teachers have access to a special dashboard to track students' reading progress, change reading levels and check quizzes to assess comprehension for each article. https://newsomatic.org/#get-free-access
Newspaper Archive is offering free access for K-12 educators to its newspaper archives, to help students with research projects. The archives include newspapers dated from 1607 to 2020 from every state and from around the world. To set up an account, contact customer service. https://newspaperarchive.com/contactus/
NoRedInk has expanded what's available free among its writing tools for educators and their students to include the company's premium services too. For the rest of the current school year, the program will provide free access to hundreds of practice writing topics; the "Premium Guided Drafts" suite, which scaffolds the writing process for students as they craft essays; "Quick Writes," a "lightweight" way to get students writing regularly; a progress tracking service to help teachers assign curriculum and track student growth by state and national standards; "Premium" tutorials; and "Premium" SAT/ACT passages for big-test practice. https://www.noredink.com/
NOVA is streaming weekly "NOVA marathons," to provide educational and entertaining content for families at home. There are also free education resources available for each, including teaching tips, discussion questions and background essays. The sessions consist of multiple programs organized under content collections, covering space and the universe, the planets, black holes, Apollo,what the universe is made of, life beyond Earth and the fabric of the cosmos. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/nova-marathons-space-universe/
NOVA is also streaming free virtual field trips on Wednesday, which let students interact with researchers and ask questions in real-time. These begin at 10 a.m. Pacific time through YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/c/NOVAEducation
Numerade is offering its asynchronous teaching platform and video library of 200,000 STEM lessons free. With the platform teachers can record lessons, take virtual attendance and conduct video Q&A with students.The company has also announced online summer camps, that allow students to take two-month STEM-related courses for free. https://www.numerade.com/office-hours/welcome/
NutriStudents K-12 has made a free set of "COVID-19 Emergency Menus" available to help child nutrition programs meet students' meal needs while schools are closed. The menus and their recipes include cold and hot meals covering multiple five-day weeks. They comply with guidelines for the Summer Food Service Program and the Seamless Summer Option. All the menus comply with USDA nutritional and meal-pattern guidelines and include compliance reports. https://nutristudentsk-12.com/covid-19-mda/
Omni Calculator is continuing to make its thousand-plus free calculators available. Each one is targeted to help students and others handle any type of equation or conversion imaginable. As a home-schooling parent told us, each "is equipped with tips and detailed explanations of concepts to various scientific phenomena. They are fun, they are helpful and they can teach you a lot more than 2+2." https://www.omnicalculator.com/
OneLogin is offering OneLogin Trusted Experience Platform for free to educators. That consists of single sign-on, multi-factor authentication and certificate-based authentication, to help secure virtual experiences for users. https://www.onelogin.com/lp/promo-edu-virtual-learning
Open Future Institute has launched the "COVID-19 QUESTion Project," a stand-alone program to support educators as they strengthen the social-emotional wellbeing of their students. The organization said its teacher resources include online lesson plans and activities intended to help students process their changing experience, empower them with the self-reliance and strengthen their sense of purpose in life and their connections with others. https://openfutureinstitute.org/covid-19-question-project/
Open Up Resources (OUR) and Kiddom have teamed up to offer free access to Open Up math curriculum for grades 6-8 within Kiddom's digital platform, through Aug. 1, 2020. Additional resources include the "No-Nonsense Distance Learning Resource Guide," weekly webinars to support teachers and districts, professional learning materials to aid with distance learning and peer-to-peer communications with the OUR education community. https://teach.kiddom.co/covid-support/
OpenSciEd, already available for free to teachers in face-to-face instruction, is promoting the use of functionality that works for online teaching. In particular, the organization's simulations allow students to explore scientific concepts. Teachers are also sharing how they're adapting the materials for online instruction through social sites, using the hashtag #OpenSciEd #Remote. https://www.openscied.org/openscied-approach/
OpenStax is reminding educators and families that its 38 open source (read: free) digital textbooks in core college and Advanced Placement subjects are available. On top of that, the nonprofit said that it would offer free access to its online homework offerings (which normally have a low-cost attached to them). That covers ROVER for math subjects and TUTOR, a beta program that provides online courseware and learning tools needed to complete a course; coverage includes physics, biology, and introduction to sociology. Also, 28 "allies" that have worked with OpenStax to develop homework and courseware that accompany its textbooks have made their offerings free. Those are listed on this OpenStax article. Finally, OpenStax has compiled lists of resource for each of its subjects, which it is documenting through its blog.
OpusYou is delivering a series of live, online music performances, along with free access to its online media library to enable K-12 music teachers and students to continue their musical experiences from home. https://opusyou.com/contact
ORIGO Education is providing weekly digital content plans for home use with K-5 students. The plans include activities for each day, along with digitally accessible or downloadable resources, designed for delivery by a caregiver or remote teacher. These resources complement the mathematical concepts and skills students are learning at their grade levels. https://www.origoeducation.com/athome/
Osmo has released a new, free projector app to help teachers project their real-word notes onto a virtual blackboard. However, the tech requires an "Osmo Base," into which the teacher's iOS tablet or phone sits. Then as he or she does something on the table in front of the set-up, the program scans the activity and displays it on the screen for students to see. Those lessons can also be recorded and shared through Airplay, Skype, Google Meet and other conferencing tools. The company said it would give out 100 base units for free to schools in need. They need to submit their request online and await response from the company.
OurPact has made its family screen-time management solution free for three months, to help parents manage their children's technology usage. Parents can redeem their promotion through OurPact's mobile iOS or Android parent apps or by signing up for an account on the website. https://ourpact.com/
Outschool has opened up its online classrooms to deliver remote courses to K-12 students ages three to 18, affected by school closures. The classes are being made available free through donations for families who can't afford to pay for the service. There are some 10,000 classes available in the company's catalog, and each consists of small-group video chats created and taught by vetted teachers. https://blog.outschool.com/free-online-classes-for-public-school-students-affected-by-closures/
OverDrive Education is offering free access to the Sora Remote Reading Book Bundle, a collection of 200-plus simultaneous-use digital titles from publishers, including Abrams, Britannica, Bellwether Media, Live Oa, and Orca. The collection also includes classics in the public domain. (Emma and Call of the Wild, anyone?) The books are in digital text and audio formats. Access is available until Jun. 30, 2020. https://company.overdrive.com/2020/03/17/sora-reading-app-extends-no-cost-ebooks-and-audiobooks-to-remote-learners/
The Paleontological Research Institution, along with its Museum of the Earth and Cayuga Nature Center venues in New York, has been compiling a list of online STEM resources for teachers and students. Those resources include content for Earth, life and climate science education, such as the Digital Encyclopedia of Ancient Life, 3D fossil images, "Teacher Friendly Guides to Earth and Climate Sciences" (each covering a specific region of the United States), nature guides, and You Tube videos. https://www.priweb.org/blog-post/learn-at-home
PandaTree, a foreign language learning platform for learners two to 17, has launched a free daily StoryTime in Spanish and Chinese that any child can participate in. https://www.pandatree.com/story_time.
Pantone is offering free access to Pantone Connect. The tool enables designers and artists to build and share color palettes, convert and cross-reference colors and match Pantone colors through Adobe Creative Cloud. https://www.pantone.com/products/digital-apps/pantone-connect-for-adobe-creative-cloud
The Paper Girls Show is a freely available YouTube channel that shares short animated shows with two "best girlfriends" who inspire each other to tackle STEAM challenges. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClipY1UxTXoQY1-qqn-WFBg
Parenting for Lifelong Health has developed a set of tips to help parents cope with learning going on at home. Topics cover one-on-one time, keeping the experience positive, adding structure, dealing with bad behavior, staying calm and talking about COVID-19. Currently, volunteers are translating the resources into 55 languages. https://www.covid19parenting.com/
PASCO scientific is providing 180 days of free access to its SPARKvue and Capstone software, which includes Blockly coding capabilities as well as digital curriculum for physics and chemistry. The company has also produced videos with data files that can be provided to students for analysis and reporting in physics, chemistry and biology lessons. https://www.pasco.com/resources/home-science-tools
PATHS Program, publisher of the SEL PATHS Program for grades pre-K-5 and Emozi for middle school, is offering weekly social-emotional lessons for remote learning through its blog. https://blog.pathsprogram.com/blog
PBLWorks has created a resource site to provide teachers with ideas, examples, and tools to facilitate project-based learning remotely. It addresses teachers' most frequently-cited requests, including projects that can be adapted for remote learning across the grade levels, technology solutions for collaboration and connection and ideas for how families can support their PBL students. Additional resources on the website include a series of free webinars about doing PBL remotely. https://www.pblworks.org/pbl-remote-learning
PBS has been gaining traction among educators with "PBS American Portrait," an initiative that invites Americans to share stories from their lives, about their families and communities, their joys, struggles and triumphs. As more people upload personal content related to COVID-19, the site has become what PBS is calling "a living archive of how we're all processing this crisis." Teachers are instructing students on storytelling and personal narratives while also allowing them to speak to their mental and emotional well-being, by answering questions posed on the site, such as, "I never expected..." and "What gets me out of bed in the morning..." The organization is also hosting a series of webinars to help educators learn how to use the website in their instruction. https://www.pbs.org/american-portrait/
PBS LearningMedia, the original teach-at-home resource, is reminding teachers and families that it provides subject-, grade- and learning standards-specific resources, including some to help explain the virus and promote healthy habits. Those are available in English and Spanish. The media organization recently hosted a webinar for teachers on how to do distance learning using LearningMedia resources, which was recorded for replay and transcribed. The organization is also promoting "H2O: The Molecule that Made Us," a series of video lessons for students in grades 6-12 on the human relationship to water. Each is supported with teaching tips to facilitate classroom implementation. https://www.pbslearningmedia.org/
PBS LearningMedia has recently opened up a "Ken Burns in the Classroom" hub, making this filmmaker's series available in their entirety. Those include The Civil War, Jazz, The War and The Dust Bowl and others. https://www.pbslearningmedia.org/collection/kenburnsclassroom/home/
PCS Edventures is making Blocksmith 3D Coding & Design free through Jun. 15, 2020. This 3D coding and game design program helps students learn how to code while creating animated, interactive games. The company is also promoting a number of free STEM and STEAM activities, to help teachers challenge their learners; many of the activities can be done offline. The company has also made its multi-lesson drone courses available free through Jun. 1, 2020. That includes "Droneology," for middle and high school students and "Droneology Jr." for younger students. https://edventures.com/pages/blocksmith-free-trial
PearDeck has opened access to Pear Deck Premium for 90 days. Pear Deck lets teachers create, distribute, and manage multimedia content and formative assessments on students' devices. Access is available to individuals and to districts. https://www.peardeck.com/stay-connected
A group of companies affiliated with Pearson VUE's Certiport have made their learning products available to help students gain tackle certifications. Subjects cover digital literacy, software applications, graphic design, programming and development, and entrepreneurship and business communication. Each is providing free 90-day trials to students and educators. The resources include practice tests from GMetrix; video courses from LearnKey; lessons and quizzes about Microsoft Office programs from Jasperactive; test prep programs for Adobe Creative Cloud products from Brain Buffet; certification preparation courses for the Microsoft Office Specialist, Adobe Certified Associate and other credentials from MSi; Adobe Certified Associate lessons from Pearson; 3D design courses from TeachMe3D; computer-aided design classes from CADLearning; Unity courseware from Unity; and code classes for grades K-14 from Code Avengers. In order for students and teachers to get free access to the courseware, they need their schools to participate. https://gocertiport.pearsonvue.com/learning-product-trial
Peekapak is providing free licenses to its program for free, allowing districts, schools, educators and families to provide lessons, at-home activities and interactive learning games to students in grades pre-K-5. The lessons promote literacy skills, the company said, "while helping families remain calm and practice social-emotional learning skills like self-regulation, empathy and perseverance." There are also coronavirus-specific lessons available. The company will follow up after registration to give access. https://www.peekapak.com/schoolclosures
Pencils and Plums, a drawing site, is offering a free 125-page ebook titled, "2,500+ Drawing Ideas," with hundreds of printable drawing pages for elementary and older students. https://pencilsandplums.com/free-ebooks/free-ebook-2500-drawing-ideas/
Perfection Learning has created the Perfection Next "All Access" account for schools, to give teachers free access to all of the company's learning materials through the end of the school year. Materials include both core curriculum and supplemental materials. For middle and high schools, resources include AMSCO Advanced Placement, literature programs, math, social studies, science and world languages. Elementary schools can choose from reading, handwriting, spelling and writing as well as science and social studies readers. There are also materials for struggling learners and English learners. A separate parent account with a curated selection of materials is also available and requires no sign-in credentials. To enter the educator version of the website, go the URL, choose "Sign in" and enter the username [email protected] and the password "PerfectionNext1". https://www.perfectionnext.com
PETEX, the University of Texas Austin Petroleum Extension school, is making its multiple online learning courses available for high schools and community colleges for a dramatically discounted $10 per student. The ecourses cover the oil business, focused on upstream, midstream and downstream sectors, including drilling, petroleum fundamentals and production basics. To acquire access to the online resources, contact program officials at [email protected].
Pilot Light, a food education center, has created a free family resource page to provide lessons in English and Spanish for parents to do with their students, related to food, cooking and nutrition. New lessons are being added each week and include videos, discussion questions and activities related to the given recipe. So far, recipes have included scones, smoothies, tomato sauce and hummus, among others. https://foodedu.pilotlightchefs.org/family-resources/
Pixton EDU, a web app that gives teachers and students a unique way to create stories, demonstrate learning and enhance writing assignments through digital comics, is making its service available free for 30 days. Users can choose images from popular content, books and movies and look through theme collections. go.pixton.com/covid19
PlayPosit is making its interactive video software free for teachers to use. The program includes an editing platform for adding quizzes to videos to heighten student engagement. The company said it has raised the limits on free user accounts so that educators are no longer limited by 100 learner attempts per month. https://www.playposit.com/join
Pneuma Solutions is offering Scribe for Education free to teachers and school districts with students who need accessible student handouts. The program processes 18 file types into accessible documents, including graphic files. Accessible document formats include HTML, tagged PDF, EPUB, DAISY, RTF, Braille, large print and TTS audio MP3. To start the service, fill out the form online or call (305) 720-3639. https://pneumasolutions.com/scribe-for-education/
PowerMyLearning is offering its "Family Playlists" program free to all schools and districts from now through the end of the school year. The program helps educators bring families into the process of learning by providing visual reporting on student progress, creating playlists that put students into the role of teacher-at-home and taking family members through learning activities and providing resources on how to help families understand state learning standards, social-emotional learning and other aspects of their children's learning. Playlists cover grades 3-8 in math, English language arts and science. Since the program uses phones, families can participate without a computer. The playlists can be delivered in 100 languages and integrate with Google Classroom and Clever. Teachers also get access to a collaborative platform with activities, assessments and interactives. To adopt the program for a school or district, reach out to Bill Rappel at (877) 338-1113 or mailto:[email protected].
PowerNotes is offering free site licenses to school districts. The software helps students unify the steps in "reading, gathering, saving, annotating, organizing, outlining, tracking and citing research" into a workflow. Teachers gain visibility into student progress on research projects. All that's needed from interested schools is a quick phone call with the company support team to help get the service set up. https://www.blog.powernotes.com/get-started
Prepared Parents, an organization with close ties to Summit Public Schools, has developed a set of stay-at-home parenting tips to help families "endure and thrive." Each tip is backed up by a guide with details. Coverage touches on creating a family media plan for managing screen time, practicing mindfulness techniques, exploring interests and more. https://preparedforsuccess.org/covid19/
Project Exchange runs a free 12-week online cultural exchange program to help middle and high school students around the world broaden their worldview and practice English skills. Students are matched with a partner from a different country and practice English and learn about culture together! Currently, the organization works with students and teachers in 23 countries, and it's seeking more students and teachers who want to participate. The program runs on Google Drive, Slack and Zoom and takes two to three hours a week. https://www.myprojectexchange.com/digital-exchange-program
ProjectExplorer has 250-plus free educational videos, curriculum guides and lesson plans for grades 3-12. Topics including history, sustainability and culture, with more than 12 hours of content. That includes "Crash Test World," hosted by "Mythbusters'" Kari Byron, to take viewers on explorations around the world. https://www.projectexplorer.org/home
Promethean is making its cloud-based lesson planning and delivery software, ClassFlow, freely available to schools, teachers and parents. The program enables users to access K-12 educational resources across subjects and share lesson content with students who are working from remote locations. In addition, teachers who currently subscribed to the company's ActivInspire can create and record lessons for students to use in any cloud environment. https://classflow.com/
Pronto, which connects people via chat and video messaging, is providing its synchronous communication platform for free for the spring and summer 2020 semesters to instructors. https://pronto.io/
Purdue University's Online Writing Lab (OWL) is a free resource for writing tips and assignments, research and citation tutorials, and teacher and tutor materials. Contents include general writing exercises, including sentence-level writing, grammar and editing; common writing assignments, including book reports, bibliographies and research papers; the OWL YouTube channel, which includes lessons on grammar, rhetoric, and professional and technical writing; and online tutoring for Purdue students, faculty and staff. https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/purdue_owl.html
Qualtrics has made K-12 Remote Learning Pulse freely available. The program allows schools to determine how prepared teachers and students are to participate in remote teaching and learning by asking a series of questions; identify obstacles to the remote experience for determining areas of investment required; and take the "pulse" of students regarding their remote learning experiences and identify trends and areas for improvement. https://www.qualtrics.com/here-to-help/
QuantumERA is making its beta version of "Gettysburg" A Nation Divided" available free to students, teachers and parents for a limited time. The virtual reality app uses 360-degree views and avatars of soldiers who fought in the battle to transport users to 1863. https://quantumera.com/app/
RCampus is offering free licenses for its "Express Edition" learning management system to teachers and schools, available until the end of the current school year. The software allows instructors to set up an online classroom quickly, invite students, share coursework, grade online and communicate. Contact [email protected] for more information.
Reading Eggs is making its reading program free for 30 days, to allow students to practice their reading skills. in addition, the company has hundreds of free worksheets available to keep kids busy and engaged. https://readingeggs.com/
Reading Horizons is hosting live lessons that use its curriculum for students and parents from now until the end of the school year, Tuesday through Thursday, at multiple times each day. Once the lessons have run, they're posted to YouTube for on-demand access. Lessons require nothing more than a paper and pencil or dry-erase board. https://www.readinghorizons.com/reading-curriculum/covid-19-virtual-classroom-support
Reading is Fundamental, the nonprofit literacy program, is reminding educators of its resources for helping students learn to read, including support materials for specific books and "quick guides" to help families encourage literacy with their kids. https://www.rif.org/literacy-central/educators
Readorium's "Reading in Science" program is free for the rest of the school year. The online program teaches reading comprehension to students in grades 3-8, using science text that, according to the company, automatically adjusts to the right reading level. https://readorium.com/
Ready Learner One is volunteering free instructional support for any educator who has a need. Through a calendar appointment system spanning the next four weeks educators can book a window of time to connect with a member of the instructional design consulting team via video hangout. https://calendly.com/rl1support/support-call?month=2020-03
Re Mago, a software company based in the United Kingdom, is making its digital collaboration software, Valerea, free to users. The program can be embedded in existing collaboration programs, including Microsoft Teams, to provide quick access to a meeting site with a digital whiteboard; screensharing; and audio, video and chat. https://www.valarea.com/getstarted/
Remind is continuing to provide free communication tool accounts specifically to teachers. These allow educators to do two-way messaging with students and families; and send documents, files, images and messages to each member of the class, including photos and recorded voice clips. The teacher plan accommodates up to 10 classes for each account with up to 150 participants in each class. The program integrates with Google Classroom, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, Box, Flipgrid, SurveyMonkey and SignUp. https://www.remind.com/teachers
Renaissance is offering several programs free to schools and districts seeking a summer learning program, including myON for reading; myON News for current events; Freckle for differentiated instruction in math, English language arts, social studies and science; and Accelerated Reader. The company has also curated a list of additional resources for educators: implementation guides, learning activities and family letters, intended to help teachers make the best use of their Renaissance programs and support families during school closures. https://www.renaissance.com/renaissance-at-home/
Renzulli Learning is providing free access to its distance learning program through the rest of the school year. The software provides project-based learning opportunities with 50,000 differentiated and highly engaging enrichment activities, enabling students to work collaboratively on projects and learning activities securely under teacher supervision. The free offer applies to current subscribers as well as new customers. https://renzullilearning.com/covid-19/
Resource Area for Teaching (RAFT) is offering "STEAM learning activity sheets," free online tools that guide parents, guardians and students through hands-on learning activities, taking advantage of common household items and without the need to purchase additional materials. https://raft.net/steam-learning-activity-sheets/
Retrieve Technologies is offering six months of free usage of its virtual classroom system. The software enables teachers to set up a class "knowledge app," which will contain the course materials. From there they add chat, assessments, announcements and/or surveys, as well as the course content itself. Then students can be added by email address and told to download the app to view the course on their mobile devices. An EDU email address is required for access. https://www.retrieve.com/signup/
Retrospect is offering free 90-day subscription licenses for Retrospect Backup. The program works on Windows and Mac devices. Use the coupon code "COVID" in the online store. No credit card required. https://www.retrospect.com/covid
Ringbeller has begun releasing videos that have been available only for classroom use on YouTube for individual viewing. The videos, which are about five minutes long, are interviews with "remarkable" leaders who use "their imagination to make a difference," including a musician, a chef and an author. Students view them, then discussion questions pop up on the screen to help them connect what they've just seen with their own creative powers, followed by a collaborative activity using objects found around the house. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRyre4mjXRYnJ54Oz26GNMA
RingCentral is offering three months of its phone, team messaging and video conferencing service for free to education organizations. Each video meeting can have up to 200 participants. https://www.ringcentral.com/lp/covid19-offer.html
Rivet, still in beta, is providing 3,500 free grade-level books designed for students who are learning to read. The app offers eight reading levels and works on iOS devices, Chromebooks, Androids and the Kindle Fire. https://rivet.area120.com/
RoboKind, which produces "advanced social robots," has made a virtual coding course from it robots4STEM Avatar Version for elementary and middle school students available through Jun. 30, 2020. The software uses an online avatar that students program rather than programming a physical robot. https://www.robokind.com/robots4stem/home
The Robotics Education & Competition (REC) Foundation has created a free online resource to strengthen students' STEM skills by allowing them to interact with virtual robots. https://www.roboticseducation.org/online-stem-learning-resources-and-activities/
Notebook maker Rocketbook is making a bunch of downloadable PDFs available free for students and educators. The collection includes graph paper, lined paper, music notation sheets and letter dot-grid sheets, among others. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/eqnsm164v0sav3v/AAA-cMxpo8BhBH8sLOFbkUe2a
The Rubenstein Center for White House History has compiled educational resources for learners, including classroom resource packets, reading lists, virtual tours of the White House, short educational videos, historical essays and a digital library of White House and presidential images. Content is grouped for grades K-5 and 6-12.
SAG-AFTRA Foundation's ad-free online children's literacy program, Storyline Online, is providing daily videos and activity guides on its social media channels. As the organization explained, Storyline Online is a digital library of 57 read-alouds "by top Hollywood talent who engage young viewers with their animated interpretations of historic, adventurous and fantastical tales that promote imagination and inclusion." https://www.storylineonline.net/
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, which is used to helping families do remote education, is promoting its quarterly activity ideas and worksheets for educators and families. Registration provides access to an assortment of activities for young learners, including alphabet search and write, math puzzlers and a memory scavenger hunt. https://www.stjude.org/get-involved/school-fundraising-ideas/educators-st-jude.html#activities
SAM Labs is offering free access to several resources for educators. Those include STEAM lessons and challenges as well as professional development. https://samlabs.com/us/digital-and-distance-learning
Sandy Hook Promise, a nonprofit led by family members who lost loved ones in the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, has adapted an action kit to include activities students can participate in virtually for boosting social and emotional skills needed during times of social distancing. https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/promise/pages/3471/attachments/original/1585257898/Youth_and_Educator_Activity_Guide_for_Times_of_Social_Distancing.pdf
SAS, a data analytics company, has made many of its learning resources available free for 30 days to help students and others homebound by coronavirus to gain and enhance their analytics skills. That comes with software labs and online support. https://www.sas.com/en_us/training/offers/free-training.html
Scholastic has made a "Learn at Home" digital hub available to support virtual learning plans that will remain open "indefinitely." "Learning journeys" are divided into four grade bands: pre-K-K, grades 1-2, grades 3-5 and grades 6-9-plus. Lessons cover English language arts, STEM, science, social studies and social-emotional learning. The program currently offers about three hours of programming per day, for up to four weeks of instruction. That includes activities such as writing and research projects based on nonfiction articles and stories, virtual field trips, reading and geography challenges and access to a digital community for kids. Teachers can plan virtual learning meetups to discuss and expand on any of the resources found on the site. https://classroommagazines.scholastic.com/support/learnathome.html
SchoolToolsTV.com is posting free minute-long videos daily during school closures for students in pre-K-2 and grades 3-8 to help them keep up with their social-emotional learning. Rusty May, "classroom whisperer," has also offered to do shout-outs for teachers and their classes by request in his videos. https://schooltoolstv.com/
Science Buddies, an always free service, is offering STEM activities that can be done in an hour or less and use materials found around the house; STEM videos; and resources about COVID-19, including an interactive tool that helps students learn how the pandemic evolves. https://www.sciencebuddies.org/
Science News for Students has compiled COVID-19-specific content for students in grades 9-12. The organization, which is dedicated to expanding scientific literacy in schools, recently released the "Coronavirus Outbreak Collection," which includes articles and updates about the virus, freely available resources, and even advice on how to cope with social distancing. Educator resources for Science News in High Schools include 200-plus STEM-related exercises, connected to all of Science News articles for high schoolers. For younger students, Science News is promoting experiments that can be done by students at home; a weekly vocabulary lesson, "Scientists Say"; discussion questions, puzzlers and "Let's learn about," a new series that offers multiple stories on a given topic, among other resources. https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/
The Seattle Symphony is livestreaming rebroadcasts of previous concerts, led by Music Director Thomas Dausgaard, as well as two "family-friendly" educational broadcasts: "Meet the Instrument" and "Tiny Clips for Tiny Tots." Those are available through Facebook and the Symphony's YouTube channel. https://seattlesymphony.org/live
SiLAS has developed free resources for educators, to help students gain social-emotional skills. Freebies include animations, lessons and parent sheets. https://curriculum.silassolutions.com/elearning_resources/
SimTutor has released three free healthcare simulations for infection prevent procedures, covering the use of soap and water, hand sanitizer and personally protective equipment. https://content.simtutor.com/hand-hygiene-and-ppe-procedures
SimX has released two free multiplayer virtual reality training cases focused on the evaluation and management of COVID-19. Developed by doctors working in Washington and California, these cases enable healthcare professionals and students to practice working with personal protective equipment, triage, evaluation and inpatient treatment of COVID-19 patients. The programs work with Oculus Quest or HTC Vive devices. http://www.simxar.com/COVIDresponse
Skill Struck is offering parents, schools and districts one free month of access to Voyage, its computer science and coding software. The program uses project-based instruction, where students learn, apply and reiterate their understanding through additional practice sessions to solidify their skills. https://skillstruck.com/free
The Smallpeice Trust has created a free program of engineering projects with a new challenge provided every Wednesday. Those are linked to the United Kingdom national curriculum and can be tackled using everyday resources around the house. Every project includes learning objectives, an instruction sheet and a video. https://www.smallpeicetrust.org.uk/engineering-at-home
SmartDeploy is offering unlimited use of its Windows desktop management program to schools through Jul. 15, 2020. IT departments can use the subscription to refresh computer labs, update classroom devices and manage PCs for remote students, teachers and faculty. https://www.smartdeploy.com/covid19
Smart Sparrow is making its "inspark Smart Courses" available free at no cost to institutions and schools. These are replacements for textbooks, that use interactive activities for learning. Instructors get tools to track student outcomes and customize the content using the Smart Sparrow platform. Courseware topics include biology, anatomy and physiology, chemistry, astrobiology, astronomy, geology, science for citizens, science writing, Galapagos exploration, global challenges and English composition. https://landing.inspark.education/teach
SMART Technologies has made its Learning Suite Online available free. The software will give students and teachers access to tools for active distance learning and lesson creation, which can be delivered on any device, including Chromebook computers. Among the features: Collaborative Workspace activities allow students to work together from home on a shared digital canvas to co-create, add content and problem solve. Shout It Out activities let students send texts and images from their devices to a lesson. Teachers can then rearrange, organize and discuss contributions. https://go.smarttech.com/distancelearning
Smartick is offering its math program free to families in need. The 15-minute interactive online math lessons are personalized for each child through artificial intelligence technology that lets students ages 4 to 14 advance at their own pace. According to the company, Smartick is designed for children to work independently, without relying on their parents. For those with true financial needs, Smartick is offering a free year's subscription, as part of its "one equals one" promise. Email mailto:[email protected] to request access. To gain access, go to https://www.smartickmethod.com/?f=1.
Smekens Education, which in normal times provides professional development, is providing always-free video "mini-lessons" for K-12 students on reading, writing and social-emotional learning. Now the company is ramping up production and releasing new lessons each week. The lessons are divided by grade bands, K-1, 2-3, 4-6 and 7-12. Videos are available on both YouTube and Vimeo. https://www.smekenseducation.com/literacy-lessons.html
The Smithsonian has pulled together a collection of distance-learning resources for pre-K-12, including learning standards-based lesson plans and extra support for both teachers and parents. Topics cover English language arts, social studies and science. Various museums are also offering subject-specific learning opportunities. For example, the National Air and Space Museum has scheduled a weekly session where experts will answer questions from kids. https://learninglab.si.edu/distancelearning
Smore is making a set of email newsletter templates available free for schools, to help educators communicate with their communities. That includes "pro" features, such as automatic translation, analytics on open rates, support for file embedding and the ability to share the newsletters in email and through social networks. https://www.smore.com/corona
SoftChalk is offering month trials to SoftChalk Cloud until May 31, 2020. The program can be used to create online lessons and course materials for delivery to students. https://softchalk.com/
SoloLean is a free advertising-driven platform for learning to code. Topics cover Python, C++, SQL, Java, JavaScript and Ruby among others. The app offers access to 2,000 courses, tailored from people with a range of skills, from beginner to professional. The company also curates lesson tracks, such as "Become a Data Scientist," "Become a Web Developer" and "Become a Full Stack Developer." The app includes quizzes and an online community for help. A paid version removes the ads. https://www.sololearn.com/
Soundtrap for Education, an online recording and editing studio, is extending its free trial for any school that signs up to try it with students this semester. Using the program, teachers and students can create, communicate and collaborate with "creative sound-making" through audio stories, music creation, podcasting and literacy training. Free access is available to support distance learning initiatives for 120 days and up to 500 seats per school with a trial account. To set up a free school trial account, visit the company's website and select " Start as a Teacher." https://www.soundtrap.com/edu/
The Space Foundation is providing free educational resources for students, parents and teachers. These include downloadable lesson plans, grant writing guidance, space expert podcasts and how-to videos, including a professional development series for teachers. https://www.discoverspace.org/
Space Station Explorers is providing free learning activities tied to the International Space Station. Those include online videos, a way to request access to the ISS camera, research opportunities and hands-on projects to understand the basics of the ISS. https://www.spacestationexplorers.org/educational-programs/?_sft_program_package=free-programs
Sparx, a UK company, is making its math virtual classroom available free to schools affected by the coronavirus. Sparx Maths has been adapted to help teachers build online math lessons that can be delivered through a streaming channel of the teacher’s choice. The platform includes a "bank" of 2,000 learning objectives. As students complete their classroom online, it's automatically marked. Teachers can monitor the progress of every student in real-time, including whether students have joined the lesson and who might be struggling. https://learning.sparx.co.uk/virtualclassroom
Special Olympics Unified Champion Program has created "The Moment Series," a collection of videos about people from around the country who experience "life-changing moments when they finally grasp the power of inclusion" through profiles of participants in Special Olympics events. The organization has developed discussion guides as well. https://www.generationunified.org/video/
Squigl is making its content creation program to schools free until Aug. 31, 2020. The software lets educators transform text lessons, summaries and announcements into video. Students can use the program for homework assignments, reflective journaling and collaboration with peers. The platform translates text in 34 languages and integrates with Google and Microsoft education applications. https://squiglit.com/remotelearning/
STEM Education Works has made a set of 26 3D printing lessons for K-12 available free. Although the lessons were developed to work with the Sindoh 3D printer, the company said they're universal and can be used with any 3D printer. Some lessons offer exercises that students can start at home and finish when they return to school. https://go.stemeducationworks.com/free-3d-printing-success-pack
stemCONNECT is offering a free video library of recorded presentations led by Florida-based experts who talk about the applications of STEM in various high-tech careers. Program managers are also available to help teachers leading classes remotely who would like to host a guest scientist, researcher or other expert in their virtual classes. According to the organization, many of the experts are also working remotely "and would gladly donate their time to share insight about their career and the education needed to succeed in their profession." https://www.gotostage.com/channel/flstemconnect.
STEM For Kids is offering free curriculum for grades pre-K through 10. Activities include a glider design lab, budgeting structures (learned through Minecraft), sun printing and nearly a hundred other lessons. Registration is required. https://stemforkids.net/register/curriculum
Start.me has made its pro version of software free. The program lets teachers create hub for their classrooms, to make it easy for students to access all of their educational resources and tools from one place online. Teachers can also post announcements on the start hub and use it as a bulletin board. The basic version already was free; the pro version is ad-free; has an unlimited number of pages; offers advanced sharing and includes extra widgets and other features. https://www.startme.com/education
Strategic Education said it would make its Sophia Learning online education platform available free to all comers through Jul 31, 2020. All Sophia general education courses are American Council on Education-recommended and transferrable to numerous higher education institutions for course credit. Those courses cover statistics, human biology, accounting, art history, environmental science and micro- and macroeconomics, among other subjects. https://www.sophia.org/online-courses-for-college-credit
Studies Weekly is now open to all teachers and students to use, whether or not they're current customers. The online platform includes all student editions, teacher editions, lesson plans, English language arts integrations and assessments. The program K-6 produces standards-based curriculum for social studies and science, which usually pairs with the company's periodical-based printed materials. https://www.studiesweekly.com/
Studycounts, a math practice website that generates unlimited math practice problems for arithmetic, algebra and calculus, has extended its free trial on teacher accounts to 90 days to help educators make it through the rest of the school year. Educators will get full access to Studycounts to share with students, including activity reports on what their students have practiced. https://studycounts.com/plans
Sumdog, which provides personalized math and spelling practice for grades K-8, uses games and rewards to encourage students in their studies. The company is offering full access free to all features and subjects for the duration of school closures until the start of the summer break. That includes online video guidance to support home learning, as well as one-on-one remote walkthroughs, daily teacher webinars and phone support. https://pages.sumdog.com/home-learning-during-school-closures/
Super Teacher Worksheets is offering free access to its collection of elementary printable teaching resources. Subjects cover grades K-5 reading, math, writing, phonics, spelling, grammar, science and social studies. Free access is offered for people affected by school closures through a shared, public account. Log in with username "temporaryaccess" and password "stayhealthy". https://www.superteacherworksheets.com/
Support.com is offering its remote technical support services free to people who are working and studying remotely. The company said it could help users with device setup, troubleshooting video conference calls, email configuration, data migration, security updates, virus or malware removal and other problems. https://corporate.support.com/offering-free-tech-support-to-those-working-remotely-during-covid-19-outbreak/
Symbaloo is offering its pro version to all educators at no cost for the duration of the school closures. The program lets teachers create "webmixes" or home pages with collections of links to websites, videos, documents and articles, as well as learning paths for students. The pro version comes with no ads, includes a custom URL, allows the teacher to manage users and enables collaboration and user groups. The platform has a gallery of 400,000 webmixes and 7,500 learning paths that are searchable by grade level and subject. Existing users can upgrade to the pro edition for either a teacher domain or a district domain with no additional charge, and educators without existing accounts can sign up for free. https://blog.symbaloo.com/blog/2020/03/18/teaching-during-quarantine-how-to-educate-in-unprecedented-times/
TalkingPoints is providing free access to its school and district communications platforms for Title 1-funded schools and districts for the remainder of the school year. (Teacher accounts are always free.) The software enables educators to communicate directly with English and non-English families through text messages and parent mobile application with two-way translation. The program syncs with class rosters and student information systems. https://talkingpts.org/here-to-help-talkingpoints-for-schools-and-districts-free/1383/
Teacher Created Materials has compiled its free parent facing materials and many teacher resources--some 500-plus free lessons--including books, parent guides and daily practice activities. Resources can be searched by grade, subject, product type and language (English or Spanish). https://www.teachercreatedmaterials.com/teachers/free-home-learning/
Teacher Essentials is providing free access to "D100 - Teaching in a Digital Environment," a professional development course to help educators affected by COVID-19 school closures. The intent: to help educators deliver the best experience to their students through remote learning. The course is self-paced and clocks in at 12 hours. https://teacheressentials.com/how-to-teach-online-during-covid19/
Teaching Strategies is providing several free resources. ReadyRosie's "Healthy at Home" offers weekly sets of videos for families, including learning activities for infants, toddlers, preschoolers and kindergarteners. The company is also making its app "ParentPal" free until Jun. 30, 2020. The program is intended to help families track the routines and activities of their kids, provide ideas for at-home lessons and "brain development" and track children's development milestones. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/parentpal-my-parenting-expert/id1503751071
TeamViewer is offering its online collaboration solution, Blizz, free of charge to all schools, to help teachers and students hold interactive lessons. The software lets them share screen content with the class, exchange information via chats, share files and collaborate with onscreen annotations. Up to 50 participants can connect via video and phone to create a virtual classroom setting. https://www.blizz.com/en-us/blizz-for-school/
Teamplace, a European company, has a free version of its team cloud storage service. Up to 10 members can access up to five gigabytes of capacity. According to the company, the more team members that accept an invitation to a "Teamplace," the more Teamplaces can be set up permanently for free. https://www.teamplace.net/en/plans-pricing/
Teamwork is offering its work management software and chat platform to schools free. Educators can use the platform to assign homework and projects to students while also sharing files and resources. They will also be able to see how students are progressing. Teamwork Chat lets students communicate with classmates and teachers remotely. The software can be used to share files, messages and class notes. Chat also allows for real-time conversations between administrators, teachers and students across different channels. The offer extends through 2020. To get started, send a message to [email protected].
Technovation has launched "#SolveItTeam," a video series to help children learn how to become "changemakers," by working through the process followed by tech entrepreneurs. They find a problem that's meaningful to them, build a virtual team and work through the various steps of coming up with a product. https://www.technovation.org/the-solve-it-team/
TGR EDU and Discovery Education have launched a series of free professional development resources, to guide teachers and parents through the online learning shift. The first module in the series, which lasts 30-45 minutes, focuses on how to understand the principles of effective STEM teaching and learning. https://tgreduexplore.org/professional-development/
Thames & Kosmos has opened a "science at home" site, with free, downloadable instructions for science activities to do at home. That includes videos, experiments and word finds. https://www.thamesandkosmos.com/index.php/educators/scienceathome
Thoughtexchange has opened its enterprise crowdsourcing platform to any educational organization that wants to reach out to its staff and community in an open-ended way to find out what people are thinking about, what kind of support they need, and what they believe the challenges to be for the future. As one education user explained, "The value of [the service] during a crisis is that people have things they have to get off their chest." https://www.thoughtexchange.com/keep-people-connected/
Thrively is making its playlist of social-emotional learning content intended to help students boost their resilience free until Jun. 30, 2020. There are separate compilations for students in elementary and secondary grades. To access them, use the order code, "breathe20". Each consists of four to five hours of activities.
Top Hat has made its education platform free of charge for the rest of the semester to support educators transitioning to remote teaching and learning. Be forewarned: For those who sign up, the company will put an education specialist "in touch" within one to three business days "to help you get set up." https://tophat.com/covid-19-response/
Top Score Writing is providing free remote access to lessons and content for teachers to use with students in grades 2-8 as part of continuing their writing development. Those who sign up get a free weekly video lesson with downloadable resources using curriculum that is Lexile-certified, according to the company. After teachers sign up, students can be provided a link to the online instruction without any registration for themselves. https://topscorewriting.com/online-learning/
TrueConf is offering educational institutions free access to its on-premises video conferencing system for up to 1,000 users. According to the company, the self-hosted distance learning platform can be set up "within 15 minutes." TrueConf is maintained by an IT administrator and works well for regions with "unstable" internet connectivity. The program's video conferencing mode and collaboration tools include screen sharing and video conference recording. Students can join online classes from any device via client applications for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS, as well as from browsers with no extra plugins. Access will remain open until Jun. 30, after which the company cut the price in half for a server license to any academic organization. https://trueconf.com/blog/blog/news/covid-19-be-safe-work-from-home-with-trueconf.html
Twinkl has opened its library of 630,000 educational resources free for U.S. residents. Resources include teacher-made activity sheets, information packs, interactive presentations, online educational games and videos. Resources can be filtered by various criteria, including grade (pre-K-5), special education and world languages. Among the resources are access to 3D and augmented reality models. To gain access, sign up for a free account. https://www.twinkl.com/sign-up
Tynker is providing free access to its Tynker School Pre-K-12 coding curriculum to schools and individual families. That includes Tynker Junior for early learners, introductory and intermediate programming courses, and interest-based courses, such as micro:bit, LEGO WeDo and drone programming. https://www.tynker.com/blog/articles/ideas-and-tips/15-free-coding-resources-from-tynker/
TypeTastic has made its classroom, school and district editions free for 60 days. The company provides access to 700 games and keyboarding activities. The service promises ad-free access with multiple varieties of reporting and integration with popular K-12 course management and productivity software. https://edu.typetastic.com/free-keyboarding-resources.html
TypingDNA is providing its typing biometrics authentication API service free for three months. Schools can run it within their learning management platforms to enable students to prove their identities by simply typing a short text on their keyboards. https://blog.typingdna.com/typingdna-api-free-to-support-online-learning/
UBTECH is posting a free robotics-oriented challenge each week -- no robot needed. A recent challenge asked students to design then sketch or build a robot that would help doctors, nurses and caretakers with their workload and help them stay healthy. The company is also hosting a free webinar series that take "deep dives" into artificial intelligence to help educators make the subject "relatable and practical" for their students. https://ubtecheducation.com/homelearning/
UnboundEd, for grades pre-K-12, provides thousands of free English and math lessons, which can be filtered by grade level, as well as teaching guides, videos and podcasts. https://www.unbounded.org/
The UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) and TED-Ed, along with 30 other collaborators including National Geographic, have launched "Earth School," a freely accessible website for students ages 5-18. The site provides 30 "quests" for students to help them "celebrate, explore and connect with nature." Videos, reading materials and activities, translated into 10 languages, focus on science and the environment. https://ed.ted.com/earth-school
The United States Census Bureau has developed a roster of 200 free home and distance learning activities, for students in grades pre-K-12, from coloring pages to statistics studies. https://www.census.gov/content/census/en/programs-surveys/sis/activities/distance-learning.html
Unity Technologies is providing free access to Unity Learn Premium, a 3D development platform. Registration provides access to live sessions with Unity experts and 350-plus hours of tutorials, hands-on projects, and courses for game developers, covering topics from "Game Mechanic Design Fundamentals" to "Getting Started with Post-Processing Stack for VR." Unity is also offering a free four-week beginner's course for educators. https://unity.com/
The University of Waterloo Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing (CEMC) has launched a new online tool, CEMC at Home, which includes games, problems to solve, videos and other materials to help students with their studies. The Centre said it would post new content "most weekdays," developed by Waterloo faculty members and current and retired secondary school teachers for each of four grade levels: grades 4-6, 7-8, 9-10 and 11-12. https://cemc.uwaterloo.ca/resources/cemc-at-home.php
UPchieve, a nonprofit that provides free, online math tutoring to low-income high school students, traditionally asks schools with participating students to pay a small fee to keep its service running. In response to COVID-19 school closures, that fee has been waived through the end of the school year. And any student who creates an account during this period can keep using UPchieve for free, forever, the organization said. The service works on any device; students choose the subject they need help with, and UPchieve matches them with a volunteer tutor in a virtual classroom. Students can get as many free sessions as they want. https://upchieve.org/school-closures
Upkey, working with The Academy Group, is taking applications for a virtual internship program, offering 1,000 seniors in high school and college students opportunities to develop their skills. The eight-week program lets students learn from expert sources, conduct their own research and complete interactive projects around a specific subject. https://upkey.com/internship
UWorld is offering a free, full-length practice SAT exam to help students get familiar with the format and content of the real test. Each answer provides a detailed explanation of the answer choices to help students review and retain concepts. https://collegeprep.uworld.com/psat/
Van Andel Institute for Education is providing open access to a project-based learning unit. The virtual version of "Prevent the Spread" is a project where students learn about their unique power to stop the spread of the coronavirus. The project provides everything a teacher needs to conduct the project remotely, including a student-facing slideshow with age-appropriate resources to help students understand the pandemic; a teacher's guide for supporting students as they create public service announcements to encourage people to adopt smart habits to protect against germs; a reflection journal to capture students' thinking; and content suggestions with ties to math, science, English language arts and social studies. The Institute is also curating a list of educational activities that can be done at home. Registration is required to download the project. https://www.blueappleteacher.org/lp-virtual-pts/
Varsity Tutors is providing students with 20 hours of free live, online instruction each week. Each class is led by an expert tutor with experience in the course topic, as well as familiarity with virtual instruction. Classes refresh weekly, with age-appropriate options for grades K-12. Subjects include math, English, science, writing and "enrichment." The company is also planning free half-day, week-long virtual summer camps, taught by expert instructors, where students can develop skills in foreign languages, chess, theater, coding, Minecraft, how to be a detective, photography and more. Currently, some 200 live, online camps are scheduled for the summer. https://www.varsitytutors.com/virtual-school-calendar
Vernier has produced free remote learning solutions to keep students engaged in STEM during school closures. That includes access to Pivot Interactives for allowing students to vary experimental parameters one at a time (for 30 days); a free demo version of Logger Proto allow students to collect and analyze data that is good until Oct. 1, 2020; as well 200-plus experiments with sample data covering numerous subjects. https://www.vernier.com/remote-learning/
VEX Robotics has launched VEXcode Virtual Robot (VR), a free web-based tool for delivering computer science lessons for those who don't have access to a physical VEX Robot at home. There are no software installations required, and the program functions on all major devices. https://www.vexrobotics.com/vexcode-vr
Vidigami is providing the class of 2020 with free access to software that will enable high schoolers to celebrate their graduation virtually. Teachers can help build a "living media portfolio" unique to every student, visually documenting his or her journey to graduation. The free service includes a consultation call, a template site, and a self-service project management board for completing the graduation site. The download is available to users until Jul. 5, 2020. https://about.vidigami.com/grad/
ViewSonic is offering myViewBoard free to schools, to help teachers conduct distance learning. The program allows for real-time collaboration through video audio conferencing, "huddles" and digital whiteboarding. https://www.viewsonic.com/us/distance-learning
Virtual Field Trips is providing its online learning videos free of charge. The service specializes in K-8 social studies, life science, geography and ancient civilization curriculum content. To participate, email the company at [email protected] with your name and email address (for logging in), and it will grant access to all videos and quizzes for 60 days or more. https://www.virtualfieldtrips.org/
Voice of Witness' "Sharing History Initiative," is offering free teaching resources, including free class sets, of Solito, Solita: Crossing Borders With Youth Refugees From Central America. Applications are open until Jun. 21, 2020. The organization's education program provides Common Core-aligned lesson plans for its books and implements oral history projects, while also supporting English language learners. https://voiceofwitness.org/education/sharing-history/
Voyager Sopris Learning is providing free access to VmathLive, a math program that lets students master the content at their own pace while earning badges, trophies, and points. The program is intended for grades K–8 and is available through Jul. 31, 2020. The trial is set up for a single-student login, but teachers may request access for a whole class. The company has also put together a "Step Up to Writing" program, to help teachers develop various strategies for supporting the writing done by their K-12 students. https://www.voyagersopris.com/remote-learning
VTech Electronics North America launched the "Learn Through This" program, using its VTech and LeapFrog products to support teachers and parents with free content such as articles, printable activity books and educational activities; and an extended free trial of its interactive learning program, LeapFrog Academy. https://www.learnthroughthis.com/
Waterford.org, a Utah state-funded family advocate, is producing a thrice-weekly email (Monday, Wednesday and Friday) on early learning, available in English and Spanish. They feature a video and an activity teaching literacy, math or science concepts for three- and four-year-olds. They're intended to enable parents to do these activities once with their children and then allow the children to do the activities by themselves. https://www.waterford.org/early-learning-boost/
Wave Learning Festival, a nonprofit, is offering a free online platform for college students to teach courses that they're "passionate about" to middle and high school students. The goal, according to the organization, is to reach grade schoolers that had their summer camps cancelled. It was started by college students at Harvard, Stanford and the University of Pennsylvania. So far there are 107 courses on the site in a variety of subjects. http://www.wavelf.org/
We are Knitters is teaching students how to knit, short video by short video. https://www.weareknitters.com/learn-knit?type=1#homeschool
The White House Historical Association is making its distance learning resources available. Classroom resource packets include access to online videos, historical essays, presidential images, reading lists and virtual tours of the White House. They're available in three grade bands: K-5, 6-12 and "all ages." https://www.whitehousehistory.org/online-resources
Wild, Free & Crafty, an online arts and crafts business, has launched daily online art lessons for students. The initial set of lessons uses supplies that many homes have (such as printer paper and markers). After the lessons are streamed, they're posted for viewing afterwards on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/c/wildfreeandcrafty
Wiley has made WileyPLUS, Knewton Alta and zBooks available through the Spring 2020 term. Also, the company has made more than 5,000 COVID-19-related articles freely available on a Wiley Online Library site. https://secure.wiley.com/COVID19OpenWPAccess, https://www.zybooks.com/, https://novel-coronavirus.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/
Windstream Enterprise is offering 90-day trials of its remote conferencing programs, voice-focused OfficeSuite UC and the Zoom-like substitute, OfficeSuite HD Meeting. Up to 500 participants are allowed, with no time limits. Set-up help is provided by the company. https://www.windstreamenterprise.com/solutions/officesuite-free-trial/
Wonder Workshop, which produces the Dash and Dot robots, published free home learning toolkits for educators and parents. The toolkits include both offline coding and robotics activities and access to Dash’s Neighborhood for 30 days from sign-up. With Dash’s Neighborhood, kids can solve built-in coding challenges or create their own projects using a virtual Dash robot. https://makewonder.com/toolkits
WonderStories is offering short chapter books at the second and third grade reading levels, with "interactive mysteries, puzzles and adventures to keep children engaged." The company said the books work "especially well for struggling readers." It's free for 60 days. https://www.wonderstories.app/
Wooclap has made its software free for K-12 educators to use "forever." The program helps teachers inject interactivity into remote lessons through quizzes, polls, wordclouds and other methods. The platform also includes flashcards ("wooflash"), which promote student memorization and comprehension while generating data to help educators track student progress. https://www.wooclap.com/
World Trade Press is offering a minimum of six months of free and unlimited access to its K–12 educational databases: ABC World Culture, ABC World Food, ABC Food America, ABC The USA, ABC Maps Online and ABC Lingo Lite. Each covers a specific topic area and contains content with photos, videos, maps, historic timelines, biographies and more. https://www.abcdatabasesuite.com/
WorryWoo Monsters, which focuses on social-emotional learning, has compiled a resource page with creative writing and art lessons plans as well as downloadable coloring pages. Author and illustrator Andi Green is also doing live readings once a week to address different themes, including worry, frustration, loneliness, confusion, innocence, insecurity and envy. Those appear on WorryWoo's Facebook page. https://www.worrywoos.com/worrywoo-sel-resources.html
Write the World is a global online community of young writers that invites teens ages 13-18 to write, share and publish their work and enter free monthly writing competitions. Designed by educators at Harvard University to improve student writing and build communication and critical thinking skills, Write the World has become a means for fostering global citizenship and engagement. Educators can create an online private classroom writing space with prompts, assignments, and guided peer review tools. They can also start an online writing club using the platform and free resources. https://writetheworld.com/
Writing Blueprints is promoting free access to "Young Writer's Blueprint," a step-by-step guide for writers ages six to 10. Topics cover gathering ideas, creating characters and settings, writing short stories, writing long works and editing. The course features short, downloadable videos and worksheets to enable students to work offline. https://writingblueprints.com/p/writing-course-ages-6-10
WURRLYedu is offering 30 days of access to a web-based version of its teaching software and creation tools for students. According to the company, the program includes access to lessons on general music, modern band, vocal ensemble and jazz, along with non-music subjects; and a recording studio to let students and teachers adjust the key and speed of the track, select instruments, apply one-touch audio and video filters and perform remote duets. The students don't require access to musical instruments. https://www.wurrlyedu.com/distance-learning
Zapzapmath, a line of programs under Visual Math Interactive, is providing free premium subscriptions to "Zapzapmath School," through July 2020 for parents and teachers. This application for students in grades K-6 includes 180 math games, with a reward system, where students can redeem and personalize their own spaceship using coins they have earned from completing math games. https://www.zapzapmath.com/school
Zearn has made its K-5 math curriculum available for free to teachers. The content includes 400 hours of digital lessons with on-screen teachers and "supportive remediation," as well as paper-based materials that can be used device-free. The company is running continual webinars for district administrators, teachers and parents to help them get the service set up for their students. https://about.zearn.org/distance-learning
Z-kai has released extensive booklets with math worksheets for students in grades 2-5, selected from the company's Zoom-Up Workbook Math. According to the company, the worksheets contain "challenging problem sets and [are] tailored to develop students' math skills." https://zkaibooks.com/free-resources/#
Zoom has lifted the 40-minute meeting limit on its free basic accounts for K-12 and teamed up with Clever to make Zoom accessible to Clever districts that experiencing closures. Outschool, a marketplace for live online classes, has made available free remote teacher training webinars demonstrating how to adapt teaching practices and curriculum to a live video chat classroom. https://blog.zoom.us/wordpress/2020/03/13/how-to-use-zoom-for-online-learning/
Find more resources for schools during the COVID-19 crisis here.
Find more resources for schools during the COVID-19 crisis here.